A Beautiful Sacrifice
by bitter-cAnDy-sweet
Summary: The unusual:The crew must save Luffy from an ill fate as Nami tries to deal with some painful new emotions yet, it doesn't end there...:LuNa  x Chapter 13 x
1. Scarlet Tears and Open Hearts xEDITEDx

-1-1_Summary_- Nami is having problems understanding her feelings for a certain captain but then Luffy is taken captive by an unknown woman with special powers of her own. The crew must hurry on a time limit while Luffy endures torture and desperately tries to withhold the secret that his captor wants. LuNa [Rated T for violence, blood, & torture + language -implied "humor" rating may change

_Background_- Basically this story reflects on a certain event on life that we all go through when we must figure out if the one we're after is worth it. Of coarse you're not the only one in their life and you must chase after them before they fall into the other person's arms forever. This, if not, is an extreme version. Don't own One Piece and never will

CH1 [EDITED]

Whether he was extremely brave or just plain stupid, he had never denied the opportunity to save or help someone before. From the beginning he would always show up unexpectantly in the lives of people in need, selflessly put his life on the line to help them find the happiness that they had been searching for so long. He never ask for anything in return except for the simple gift of friendship. It was strange that someone could be so giving and affectionate in this cruel world of greed and hate, but there was no better way to describe him than an oddity impervious to the twisted sin of humanity… a beacon of hope in the dark ocean abyss.

Yet, there were times when the light would suddenly dim to a point just barely on the edge of darkness. Time after time, Luffy would always push himself to the limit and end up just on the brink of death fighting for what he believed in. When he lost consciousness in the end it was his friends who had to fight to save his life. In those moments it was almost as if his life was in their hands but in truth, it was his will to go on that kept him alive…

-X-

Nami stared blankly into the room in front of her through the open doorway. The crew members were rushing through the infirmary quickly swiping various medical supplies from the shelves as they tended to their unconscious captain. His blood was quickly seeping through the sheets as deep crimson engulfed the white cloth and steadily dripped down to the floor below. It was times like these that she was thankful for his rubber powers that protected him from blunt attacks and heavy bruising but against the blade he was not so lucky. All across Luffy's body there were numerous slashes in a wide array of sizes decorating his skin in a repulsive series of crosses and indentions, some dangerously deeper than others. She could hardly believe how critical of a condition he was in now. She slowly got the nerve to come closer to the boy's body stopping next to Chopper who was busily trying to work on various injuries at once. " Why is he shivering so badly?" she asked.

"Must be the massive amount of blood loss" explained the reindeer stitching up the gash on the side of the captain's head.

Looking at his face Nami observed the locks of raven black hair covering his eyes streaked with dried blood. Streams of bright red fell down his forehead gathering at on the eyelids before running down his cheeks. Nami suddenly shivered at the sight but before she could question anything Chopper ordered her to wipe the blood away.

Zoro barged in holding the plain white shirt cueing Robin to look up from working on the boy's injuries on his left arm and use her devil fruit powers to sit his body up to slide on the shirt. Unsurprisingly the shirt was too big for the 17 year old as it came down mid thigh and slightly hung off one shoulder yet fit somewhat comfortably around the torso and arms. Sanji and Robin rolled up the sleeves to his elbow and proceeded with their work on his arms.

"Damn, guys! Luffy's got this gigantic gash on his thigh!" yelled Usopp from the other end of the patient table. Chopper made his way to the other side of the table after he had finished dressing the head wounds to see the seriousness of the injury.

Surveying the wound for a bit the reindeer let out a sigh before stepping away from the body. "We're gonna have to take his shorts off for this" said Chopper. Nami's breath hitched abruptly catching Zoro's attention who simply raised a brow at her.

Usopp and Chopper slipped off the garment revealing his black boxers beneath while Chopper pushed his legs apart to get access to the injury on the inside of his thigh. Nami's eyes shifted away from the treatment blushing slightly from the sight. From the side Robin softly giggled while Nami quickly turned her head away trying to hide her red face.

" I think reindeer-san can handle this last part. We should all leave the captain to sleep in peace." Robin announced.

Everyone nodded as they left the room to retreat to their own beds after the long day they all had. Nami decided to stay up for a bit longer and walked up to the deck to stare off into the sky. It was already dark as the had set sail hours ago to escape from their new found enemies. The stars shined brightly in contrast to the dark blue background of the sky. In the silent solitude of the night she tried to relax her mind from the rush of battle and the recent close call.

'I can't believe we were so close to not making it out of there alive' she thought, 'He looked so helpless and vulnerable back there...I shouldn't have...'

"…Wait! what am I saying this is Luffy! He'll be fine, that knuckle head! Getting all beat up like that but he'll bounce back he always does.. I have nothing to worry about…"she said out loud to no one. Despite her words she couldn't help but have a slight feeling of doubt overcome her thoughts. Her distressed mind betrayed her exhaustion leaving her to pace the ship to wait for the doctor the finish as she passed the infirmary door every so often trying to catch any noise coming from within. To her delight, Chopper came out from the door trotting to Nami lightly as she turned to greet him.

"So how is he?"

"I dunno for sure. He was cleaned up but he has a high fever and keeps shivering. He is going to have to sleep it off and tomorrow we will see how he is doing"

"Can I see him for a bit?" she asked hopefully.

Chopper looked up curiously but shook his head in disapproval " No, not tonight he needs to rest and be alone."

Nami sighed in disappointment as she watched the reindeer run off to bed.

"Please, let him be Ok" she whispered to the stars.

_Ha so short. I'm sorry if I disappoint some people but to make up for it, the next chapter will be a little sweeter iff I need 2._


	2. Hidden Devotion xEDITEDx

**Ch 2 Edited. **

Nami woke up to the sound of the creaking ship as the waves hit the side of Sunny. It was around 6 in the morning and the sun was slowly rising from behind the horizon. The rays spilt orange onto the floor painting the room with its shimmering light. She glanced at Chopper on the foot of her bed, who was still sleeping soundly.

'He must have sneaked in here while I was asleep. He probably couldn't sleep because of all the fighting and last night,' she said in her mind, 'Wait…Last night! Luffy! '

The navigator quickly made her way out of her cabin as quietly as possible not to wake the sleeping reindeer. Slipping out of the covers, she tiptoed over to the door and out into the hall. The door clicked shut behind her as she let out the breath she was holding looking out across the deck where her destination lay. Her bare feet padded the wooden floor while she glided across the ship to the sickbay at the stern.

At the door of the infirmary she put her ear to the door but she didn't hear the usual snoring that she knew her captain usually emitted in his sleep, only a faint sound of heavy breathing. She cracked the door open to peek in a little and saw Luffy on the temporary bed. Nami walked closer to his side next to his sheets that were in a heap on the floor. His right arm hung lifelessly off the bed where a stream of blood ran across to his fingertips falling in consistent drops into a small puddle on the floor below. He must have opened his injuries in his movements while he was sleeping. Fortunately, the sleeves of the shirt were rolled up passed the injuries leaving the white cloth unblemished. As she scanned his body farther up she noticed that his face was slightly flushed and was covered in a thin layer of sweat; his breathing had already settled a little to a steady huff.

Suddenly he began to thrash around, his eyes still closed crying out with what little strength he had at the time.

"I will never let you!" he cried. "I won't be that…"

The last words came out to a whisper. Nami stared in awe and confusion for a moment before she noticed tears glistening down his cheeks. She looked down at his flailing legs and noticed that the harsh movements were opening the gash that Chopper had apparently stitched up. Some of his other injuries became irritated from the movement as red blotches began to form underneath the white bandages. Fidgeting in her spot, she panicked in her indecisive state to handle the situation. On pure instinct, Nami threw herself on his body and held down his limbs with her hands and weight.

"Shh, shh, Luffy please calm down," she whispered in his ear. As if on reaction to the sound of her voice, Luffy's body became still and nothing could be heard in the room except for the rhythmic pattern of their breathing.

She looked down at to make sure that the stitches were ripped open and noticed that his shorts were still off. Nami jumped off his body after noticing that she was basically straddling him the whole time.

"Get a hold of yourself Nami, they're off because the cloth would irritate the cut if it rubbed against them."

She looked down at Luffy's now peaceful sleeping form. Pulling up a chair, she decided it would be best to watch him incase another event happened. Gazing affectionately at the boy, she began to run her fingers through his raven colored hair. She suddenly heard a small laugh behind her and whipped her head around to find Robin standing in the doorway casually leaning on the doorframe.

"Robin! I was just checking up on him to see if he was awake and uh was just brushing the hair out of his face… and uh…umm how long have you been there?"

"Long enough." replied the archeologist.

"Please don't tell everyone what you saw! I was just worried about him you know and I bet anyone else would have done the same thing!" pleaded Nami.

Robin simply walked up to Luffy's bed and placed her hand on Luffy's hand. "Yes, I would have but that's because we all care about him. You on the other hand, it's obvious that you have more feelings for him than you are letting on," she whispered, "You don't have to hide them Navigator-san."

" I have no idea what you are talking about!" denied Nami standing up out of her chair. "I never had any feeling for this baka and never will!"

"Change is good sometimes, you just have to give it a chance." said Robin smiling at the younger girl.

Their conversation was cut short by the sound of someone running through the halls.

"Everyone! Wake up! There's something weird going on outside!" yelled Usopp.

Soon the door of the men's quarters opened with all the grouchy guys complaining about the noise. "Go on the deck! I think we made a wrong turn because there's a thick cloud of fog surrounding the ship," yelled Usopp automatically perking up the members as they ran out onto the deck. The marksman finally made it to the infirmary and found the two girls standing next to Luffy's bed.

"C'mon, Nami you need to navigate us through this!" he whispered not to wake the sleeping captain. The three ran though the kitchen to find Zoro, Sanji, Chopper, and Franky barely visible through the fog. As the ship floated through the cloud, the fog lightened a little so that the crew could see the surrounding water. A far as they could see, they were in a death trap where the water was sprinkled with sharp rock formations penetrating the surface. The eerie scenery was completely opposite of the orange sun Nami remembered rising a few minutes ago. Where had this sudden change in environment coming from?

"Ok guys! Put the sails away we don't want to rush threw these rocks too fast," she ordered the crew as they scrambled to their jobs.

As she scanned the waters from the side of her eye she saw a white figure standing on the rocks. She quickly turned her head but saw nothing and quickly dismissed it as just her imagination and began surveying again when she saw another rock formation ahead. Just before she could say anything the ship suddenly came to a halt. The rest of the crew members didn't notice anything as they were to busy tying up the sails and steering according to Nami's orders but the Navigator was staring straight at the white figure standing on the point of the rocks across the water from herself.

The shape of the figure's body was of a woman's as she wore a pure white strapless dress that fit tightly to her body and came down to her ankles. It was somewhat torn off diagonally to reveal part of right pale leg as the wind lightly blew on the thin cloth. Although her clothing choice in the middle of the ocean was marked as odd in the navigator's eyes, the thing that frightened her most was the white long veil that covered her face. Her disturbing appearance left Nami almost speechless. Her eyes widened with fear at the ghostly figure standing before her as her scream echoed across the water.


	3. The Arrow in the Heart

_Sorry for the slight delay but I'm in NYC and just moving around all the time. _

_So yeah this IS my first story and I'm feeling really accomplished that I'm actually dedicated to something for once. Now this chapter should start the actual story line._

Ch3

The crew looked at Nami then the direction that her eyes were focused on but saw nothing in front or around her. Apparently the figure had disappeared just as suddenly as she appeared on the rocks. Usopp looked at Chopper with a confused expression before sticking his index finger to the side of his head and twirling it implying to the small reindeer that she must be crazy. A blood vessel formed on Sanji's forehead as he stomped his foot down on the marksman's head for making fun of his beloved _Nami-swan_.

"Uhh, exactly who are you talking to," questioned Zoro.

Nami looked back at them with a terrified expression only to be countered by their confused ones. "You guys didn't see her?"

They all shook their heads in reply. Nami leaned on the banister while cupping her own cheek shaking her head. "I know what I saw," she whispered, "I have a bad feeling about this…and why does Luffy and his strange episode keep coming up in my mind?"

She turned to Chopper and signaled him to come over to her. As he approached her she bent down to his height to whisper in his ear.

"This morning I visited Luffy and he didn't look so good plus he was also turning in his bed and once yelled out in his sleep," she explained, "Can you, by chance, go down and check up on him and maybe stay there because I'm worried about him."

The little doctor nodded before running down under deck and out of site.

"Are you trying to protect him from me?" asked an unknown voice.

Nami looked up and around the surrounding area and saw nobody. The crew didn't seem to have heard anything as the continued on at their stations. She looked back out to sea and saw the woman again standing on another rock but this time she didn't scream.

"What do you mean?" the Navigator whispered.

"I am here for your captain and you don't want that do you?"

This time she was sure that the voice was coming from inside her own head, but how? "I won't let you take him away." she responded coldly.

"There's nothing you can do though." said the voice as the figure vanished into the fog again. Nami searched the water for her but could not see through the thick wall of gray but something moved in her peripheral vision right next to the ship. Nami turned to see the girl perfectly balanced on the ship's railing with her hands close to her sides and head slightly downcasted. She let out a small laugh before disappearing again but this time she was heard by everyone.

"Who just laughed?" asked Franky.

"That sounded sooo creepy!" said Usopp peeking down from behind the walls of the crow's nest.

Little footsteps were heard coming from downstairs as Chopper ran up on to the deck screaming. "Guy's, there was this scary laugh I heard while I was with Luffy but the weird thing is I heard it in my mind!"

"Whoa wait, How could you hear it if we heard it too but we were way up on deck?" asked Zoro.

"It seems that we aren't alone on these waters after all," remarked Robin as she pointed toward the front of the boat. The crew followed her finger to the bow of the ship and saw the white figure that Nami had said she saw a few minutes ago. The young woman stood on Sunny's head and gracefully jumped onto the ship.

"Ahh! Another beautiful woman lost at sea comes on this ship to join me!" chirped Sanji with heart-eyes. Unfortunately for the cook the she was obviously not here for him. She lifted her arm slowly as Sanji's body rose into the air and then whipped her arm to the side sending him into the banister. Even if he loved him getting hurt at the simple flick of a wrist, Zoro went to help the broken hearted guy up.

"Who are you," questioned Nami.

Her only reply was another cold laugh as she raised her hands and positioned her fingers to somewhat make each hand resemble a spider. Suddenly everyone felt their bodies stiffen as they were each somehow pulled from their locations on the deck and forced into a line in front of the woman as if she was… controlling them.

"I'm in control," said the voice in their minds. Each of them unwillingly turned to another: Zoro facing Sanji, Robin with Franky, and Chopper against Usopp. Only Nami was left in the middle alone as each pair was suddenly forced into battle with each other.

"What the hell!" yelled Zoro receiving a blow in the gut from one of Sanji's kicks.

"Aghh! I can't stop!" cried Chopper now in his larger form trying to crush Usopp into the ground.

Nami watched the girl utilize her fingers as if she was…pulling on strings.

"So you're supposed to be some sort of puppeteer or something, right?' asked Nami with a smirk.

The girl turned her heads to the navigator. Even though she wore a veil she was obviously glaring at the other. "So, you think you know everything don't you," she countered, "but you've only seen the beginning." She flattened her hands and fingers and then balled them into fists making the other 6 members fall to the ground, unable to move. Nami watched in horror as all her friends writhe on the ground in pain.

"What did you….?" Nami began to ask as she turned back to the mysterious puppeteer but she was gone again. Since she had disappeared the hold on her body had lifted and she quickly ran to her nakama's side.

"Damn, it felt like my bones were going to break and I couldn't breathe at all," coughed Zoro.

"Same here," said Usopp gasping for air, "but I think I'm starting to feel better now."

"I didn't feel anything on my body but my head was about to explode!" said Franky.

"Count yourselves lucky, I just thought it would be fun to mess with his friends," came the voice. Nami looked up to see the woman standing at the top of the stairs leading below deck. Her eyes widened in shock to see what she was carrying.

In her arms, Luffy's body hung limp with the girl's arms carelessly cradling him. Her arm supported his neck in such away so that his face was turned towards them. The rest of the crew looked up from the floor and gasped at the sight of their captain in the enemies hands. He was still clothed the same as they left him during the night but around his neck was a bluish green collar which was quickly identified as sea-stone. Yet, the most noticeable thing about Luffy's appearance was that his eyes were open.

He seemed to be unconscious still; he probably never woke up since Nami left his side. She stared into his half-lidded eyes searching for any sign of life but it seemed he was lost of spirit which was highly unusual for the naturally hyper captain. His vacant stare was like a black abyss sending chills up Nami's spine. Her heart tightened at the sight of his vulnerable appearance but she was helpless.

"No" whispered Nami.

"Waiting on this damn island for this one," said the voice in all their minds, "now it's a matter of time until he breaks."

The fog moved into the space in between the crew and their captain. Nami ran to where the puppeteer was standing but she was gone and so was Luffy. She fell to her knees on the spot staring into the fog. She gripped the place over her heart as tears began to form in her eyes. She could feel it now, an empty feeling in her heart that only happened when she lost Bellemere… a person she loved. It was true, once their gone you'll feel the pain.

"This can't be happening," she cried. Her heart grew in rage suddenly as she balled her fists in her own hair. "I won't let that bitch take you."

_Please review! Other than on the story itself can I get some feedback on the actual writing just to see if I need to work on a few things like the flow of words and if I need to elaborate on stuff more. That would be greatly appreciated._

_Also, before I write the next chapter, there are two different stories that branch off from this point _

_(1) an interesting fantasy based story that has a dramatic climax with an out of the ordinary secret of Luffy's that ties in with his personality_

_(2)a realistic story that could have happened in his unknown past that hurts his present_

_I can't really decide even if I'm leaning towards the first one more but I can't get started on the 4__th__ chapter cuz I really need help deciding and need some feedback on the writing techniques. I'm sort of wondering if anyone's caught on the symbolism in here._


	4. The Arrow's Story

-1_Wow! Sorry for the really long delay but I seriously got swamped with my a whole bunch of crap before school starts up again. Plus, the last couple of weeks I got into this art gear that came out of no where so focused on that more. Thanks for the comments and stuff and trust me there's more to the little evil character than meets the eye. Yeah, there's some OOC-ness going on esp. for Luffy in the near future but sall good in my book )_

_NOTE!- Ok so during this whole dip in time btwn chapters I sort of figured out how to somehow get both the 1st and 2nd idea combined into 1 story through brain storming done during my odd lapses of insomnia. -- _

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"Owww," groaned a voice inside the pitch black room, "huh? my body feels so weak…what is this place?"

He tried to get up but his body completely lost all feeling as he slumped back down against what seemed like a stone wall. The boy was completely unaware of his surroundings but couldn't help but feel a bad vibe emitted from something or one near him. He smiled to the darkness around him and focused on himself again.

"Huh? What the.." he said lifting up his arms with difficulty. The sound of chains clinking against each other echoed through the room.

"Chains?…oh! I know! I bet it's Sea-stone." He felt around his limbs and found 2 on his wrists and 1 around his neck. "Cool necklace! Wait…is it a collar?…where am I again?" he asked with wide eyes looking into the darkness.

"Are you just acting ADD or maybe just plain retarded because just listening to you talk to yourself is really entertaining." mocked a feminine voice in front of him.

A dim light was lit above and revealed two figures below. The room was a small cramped area with the walls and floor made out of stone. On the opposite wall of that Luffy was leaning on was a wooden door with a small bared window and above was the mysteriously lighten candle dripping wax every so often to the floor. Luffy was sitting on the ground, his head bowed forward because of the strong effect of the stone. He shifted his eyes to his arms to see his wrists bound to the wall by a long chain and the chain attached to the collar on his neck hung down in front of his chest and barely touched the ground. A few feet in front of him stood his captor staring down at him.

"Hmm? Who the are you and where's my crew?" he asked while trying lift his head to the person in front of him. The veiled woman in front of him slowly knelt in front of him and lifted his chin with her index figure.

"Oh, your friends are somewhere off in the ocean blindly sailing through some fatally sharp rocks just waiting to drown them all," laughed the girl.

Luffy's expression suddenly became serious glaring at the hidden eyes in front of him. "I'm not playing with you where and why am I here and why is my nakama out there?"

"Are you always this self-confident in yourself when you're in such a pathetic position," the girl questioned, " well, I guess I'm gonna have to tear that strong wall of yours down it seems." She sighed and rested her head in her hands. "You should feel pretty proud that I actually talk to you because I know that your too good to play mind tricks with unlike your clueless crew…you knew I was in the room all along didn't you?"

"What's it to you? and you haven't answered my question!"

"Don't you dare raise your voice to me you worthless freak!" she yelled as she roughly threw his head into the stone wall behind him, "Without your powers your weak as any normal human so don't get any ideas." Streams of blood rolled down Luffy's neck as he let out a small moan from the pain in the back of his head. "But just because I'm sweet I'll tell you your on a remote island known as Kyuushuu island but your nakama have no idea where you are," she said nonchalantly, "I kidnapped you because you have something that I want but with that kind of will you won't let it go will you."

Luffy cocked his head to the side. "Eh? What are you talking about lady? If you haven't noticed I'm kinda almost half-naked so how can I have something you want?"

The girl giggled to herself as she moved closer to his face. " Stop playing that innocent card I know your not an idiot," said said pulling his hair back violently, "and I know what your hiding along with every devil-fruit user in this world, ……the true curse of the devil's fruit," she whispered in his ear. "You're the one I've been searching for in particular."

"What do you mean?" breathed Luffy.

"I know all about your kind, like after eating those fruits it has an extra side-effect other than the ones originally known; the one that makes the user have an insatiable lust for blood and eventually death," calmly explained the girl, "but that only comes out if the human mind of the user gives up on itself. I chose you because your superior physical strength without the curse is so abundant that you will be the most effective yet, you won't let it out so I'm going to make you break and when you do I'll be in control with this." She yanked at the chain pulling his neck closer to her.

"How do you know about that?" asked Luffy, "only users know it and keep it to themselves…"

"Oh, I have my ways, some people are easy to persuade to tell me everything especially that clown." casually explained the veiled woman.

Luffy's eyes widened as she spoke and closed in defeat. He knew exactly what she was talking about. "Fine I'll drop the innocent act but what makes you think I'll break?" he hissed, "and besides what makes you think that I'm the strongest out there?" asked the young teen.

"I'm glad you asked that," she replied standing up, "I know because I've been watching and following you from the beginning and seen the people you have defeated in battle." As she said this her body split into pieces.

"Buggy the pirate,"

Her body became smooth suddenly, "Alvida, Crocodile," she said turning her hand into sand repeating all the devil-fruit user enemies he had beaten in the past along with an example of their powers. "and just for fun your brother Ace," she finished turning her hand into a flame.

Luffy just stared in awe as the powers of his past were displayed in one person before him. "Awesome! How can you have all of those powers? I've never heard of a devil-fruit that can let you do that!" he said completely distracted from his current predicament.

"I'm no devil-fruit user I just copy others attacks like a mirror I guess. It's a natural gift probably given to me to rid this planet of you freaks." She turned her body back to normal flexing her fingers a little. "It's natural to have 2 powers in this world anyway: 1 evil which is your kind and me who has the ability to kill you all...but these don't amount to the power you hold inside." she sighed kneeling back down in front of him.

"Why do you want it anyway?" asked Luffy suddenly serious again.

"Why? because I detest devil-fruit users and their lack of regard to others and abuse of power," she said through clenched teeth, " they take advantage of others who are weaker and destroy." She stood up and walked to the side wall with her hands balled in fists by her sides. Her quivering breaths were all Luffy could hear as he stared at her back. "You people kill for fun….. just like how that man killed my family in front of me and that maniacal laughing ," she turned back to him showing no signs of her previous episode and knelt before him again, "That's why I use my gift to give all of your kind payback, revenge for what they did to me and others and using you against them will end it."

"Honestly, you're a cute one but it's too bad that fate has lead us here." she whispered cupping his face in her hand.

"Don't touch me you bitch! Take me back to my friends now!" said Luffy as he tried to get out of her grasp to no avail.

"Still a rebel I guess," she sighed, "but I like that fire inside." Her free hand crept up his white shirt to rest on his stomach receiving a small gasp from the helpless boy.

"Wha-what..are you doing?" he stuttered feeling the cold touch against his body.

"Just playing with you," she laughed taking her hand away from his stomach.

Regaining his composure Luffy looked up with a quiet laugh. "Tsh, You seem so confident yourself in getting what you want that you can play games with me yet you hide behind that ugly veil of yours like your scared," teased Luffy.

"More like scarred" she remarked coolly raising her veil. Hidden behind the thin piece of cloth was a beautiful face with straight black hair framing her face going down to mid-neck and bangs a little past than her chin. Her smooth pink lips stood out from her milky white skin. Luffy's eyes widened in shock as he looked into hers, or at least where hers should be. Her eyes were only sockets that revealed only black voids lined with crimson red. She smiled at his reaction showing her perfectly white smile. "You like what happened because of your cruel kind?" she growled putting the veil back over her face. "My name is Cai," she admitted slowly moving her hand down to his chest, " Don't think that your 'nakama' is going to save you from this….make yourself comfortable!"

With a large amount of force she pushed him back towards the wall making his head ricochet off the wall in the same spot as last time. Luffy's vision began to blur as Cai stood up again.

"This is going to be so much fun torturing the world famous Monkey D. Luffy… at least you will feel my pain," she said. His weak body couldn't take the hard blows to the head anymore as he blacked out and slowly slumped to the side lying on the cold floor.

She turned away and walked out of the cell. Cai blew out the candle extinguishing the light leaving the boy in pure darkness. The large wooden door shut echoing through the halls. 'That fucking confidence, I'll be sure beat it out until your mind surrenders,' she thought as she walked away from the cell, "Revenge is so sweet," she mused as she walked through the darkness around her.

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The fog had disappeared from around the ship and now all that was seen were the sharp rock formations that threatened to puncture the sides of Sunny protruding out of the vast ocean in front of them. The remaining members of the straw-hats were recovering from the embarrassing defeat by one unknown character who visited their ship a few hours ago.

"What are we going to do now?" asked Zoro, "we're stuck in the middle of the ocean surrounded by jagged rocks, Luffy's been kidnapped and we have no idea where that unnatural weird girl went." His pessimistic attitude created a little tension in the air between the members as they listened to his remark.

"Hey! Fucking marimo! Don't call that young lady names!" yelled Sanji

"What did you call me shitty-cook?! Besides, if you haven't noticed she's the reason were in this situation plus she beat the crap at of you anyway.." he retorted smiling slightly to the last few words.

"Not like you did any better!" said the cook kicking the other straight in the mouth wiping off the grin. AS usual the shoe and sword met in another duel that took place for about 10 seconds before a certain Navigator showed up between the two.

"Knock it off you idiots!" scolded Nami punching them on their heads down to the ground.

"Yes, we don't have time to play games, captain-san is missing," remarked Robin.

Usopp stood up proudly next to Chopper. " I was kidnapped once before by thieves along time ago!"

"Really?!? When?" asked the curious little reindeer excitedly.

"When I was working for a secret mission across the ocean. I was taken in by the thieves but I beat them up easily even when I was tied up!" proclaimed the liar parading around acting out the imagined scene for Chopper who seemed to be fascinated by his fake story.

Suddenly four members were now on the ground nursing the huge bumps on their heads while Nami stood above them all with a huge blood vessel popping out of her head.

"Don't any of you notice the problem here?!?" she said behind clenched teeth, "Luffy is gone and we need to find him!"

"Geez, Nami, Luffy is strong enough to fend for himself! When he wakes up he'll break out and everything will be fine." said Usopp.

A mysterious dark cloud fell around Nami as she glared at the marksman. "How can he get back to us if he doesn't know where we are??"

"…"

"and didn't you notice the sea-stone collar he had on?!"

"…."

"Aghh!! What do we do?? Luffy!!" screamed the little doctor running in circles around the crew.

"I suggest we get out of this area and figure out how to get to Luffy-san after." proposed Robin.

"…..I guess," sighed Nami.

"SUPA!! Let's get going!" yelled Franky pumping his fist into the air.

"Don't act so happy! We haven't accomplished anything!" reprimanded the navigator punching the remaining male member to the ground. She walked over to the balcony pulling out her log pose watching the needle point forward. "I guess we have no choice."

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_Sorry if it sounds rushed and a whole bunch of info was randomly shot out in the chapter but I rather get into the main part of the plot so I can get to the pain and suffering faster now. The main reason for this chapter was to clear up reasons, powers, secrets, blah, you know. Anyway review if you like if you want some kind of work on something or w/e. Yeah' next chapter will be pretty much bloody and painful as will the ones in the future for poor Luffy so the rating will change as of next post so look out for that. Thanks!_


	5. Ignorant Cries

-1_Awhh you guys pushing me on to write about cruelty in making me feel just cheeky! Anyway thanks for the reviews again - they always make me feel that I should update sooner. _

_So just passed through an event in life leaving me kind of heart broken so I'm venting on this story right now…ironic how it's in the story were I can vent by writing about someone else's pain…yeeaahh Oo hope u guys hate Cai as much as I do!!_

_Sorry Luffy… ily!!_

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Sunny was floating peacefully in now clear waters towards the next island. On the contrary the crew was running around the ship aimlessly…well, at least Usopp, Chopper, and as spontaneous as he is, Franky, were.

"Agghh! What are we going to do?! Luffy!!" sobbed the small reindeer running to all corners of the ship yelling out his name to the vast ocean.

Usopp stepped up behind Chopper rubbing his finger under his nose. "Have no fear! Captain-Usopp will take over! I will lead the way to Luffy!"

"Oy! Shut up and get over here so we can plan what to do you shit-heads!" yelled Sanji now chasing the 3 around the deck.

Nami and Robin were sitting around Robin's coffee table she had out on the deck. They were both standing up bent over a map plotting the distance to the next island. Zoro was sitting close by leaning on the ships railing listening to the 2 girls discuss plans. He closed his eyes as the girls rambled on about Luffy's whereabouts and Sunny's needs. Nami was arguing against Robin to search for Luffy now rather than go to the next island gather supplies and plan there. Usually she would do what Robin wanted but she wasn't very patient right about now and her temper wasn't helped much by listening to the background yelling and fighting. How the hell could they be so loud without there ringleader?

She loomed over the 4 threateningly about to beat the crap out of them making them all back up quickly to the farthest end of the deck. Nami sighed as she watched them huddle into the corner. "Now, how are we going to find Luffy if we have no idea who took him and where he went?" she asked calmly turning back to Robin who was staring intently at the floor, "Robin?"

"Hmmm? Oh, I'm sorry navigator-san I was just thinking about that mysterious girl who took Luffy'san away," explained the Archeologist shaking her head slightly, " I feel like I've seen her before or maybe heard of her.."

Zoro raised an eyebrow to this but sighed and relaxed into a slump closing his eyes again in deep thought. "Actually I've heard rumors of someone that does the same stuff she just did on us but I thought they were fake."

"Really?" asked Chopper curiously, slowly walking up from behind Nami.

"I've never heard about some girl with what? Telekinesis? And some kind of ability to control people! Is it some kind of devil-fruit power?" questioned Nami.

Robin looked at Zoro who shrugged and looked back to Nami. "No, it's not possible to have more than 1 power by eating the fruits and she had I think three: the telekinesis, controlling us, and I think the fog was 1 because it disappeared when she did." explained Zoro counting them off with his fingers," so I'm guessing there's something more to the weird bitch."

The other 5 stared at him in disbelief when he was finished explaining his theory. Sanji didn't even bother to hit Zoro for insulting another lady. "Wow, that was amazing! I didn't know you were smart like that.." blurted out Usopp still gawking at the swordsman.

THUD

Usopp held his hands over the large red bump forming on his head looking up teary-eyed at the swordsman. "Tsh, I can be smart when I want to be," said Zoro under his breath.

Robin suddenly got up and was making her way down under deck. She quickly came back up carrying old newspapers sent in months ago by a mail birds and a really decrepit black book.

"Eh? What you got there?" asked Franky tilting his sunglasses down to get a better look at the two objects.

She opened up a newspaper to an article near the center of the paper. There was a large photo of mass destruction and a figure standing a mist in the flames. The articles title: DISATER IN ALABASTA

She opened another: WATER 7 ATTACKED

"It's says that the same girl was spotted at those two main cities but different attacks were reported by the supposedly unhurt citizens. What bothers me is that it seems like she was following us the whole time, neh?" proposed Robin, "and this book I got way back in the Alabasta library on the history of the Devil-fruit has some interesting information that I believe all of you might want to see."

She opened the book and flipped through the frail pages. When she finally reached the page she lifted it up for all of them to see. The crew crowded around the book intently reading the page. Their eyes grew as they read down the page. Suddenly they jumped back staring at the page in a surprised manner.

"Sh..She's a what?! Stuttered Usopp.

"Correct, she's a one of a kind human that has the ability to overpower any kind of devil fruit user." Robin clarified.

The crew slowly nodded scrunching up the eyebrows in deep thought. The idea of something over the power of a devil fruit user was a foreign idea for them even if Enel was somewhat of a "god" …but then again Luffy did beat him too. Was is possible for such a person to exist in this already chaotic world?

"….I guess that sounds believable a little right?" asked Chopper looking a each one of them for assurance.

Franky moved a little closer to the book squinting a little above his sunglasses. "It says here that like devil-fruit users they are born as and appear like a normal human and only discover their power when 1st encountering their opposites. In contrast they have a atypical ability to copy the users powers and use them against them. She basically kills them "cleansing" the world, which comes by the nickname fallen angels. " he read in the book, "…..CRAZY!"

"Pshh, real original name" scoffed Zoro.

AS Franky read out of the book Nami's anger rose steadily. "What?! Angels? You have to be kidding me! How can they be Angels killing lives and..and kidnapping Luffy!" blurted out the navigator, " she's the demon!"

The crew all took a stepped back from the raging girl. Nami glared at them before storming down into her room. They all watched her go down except for Robin who was sitting in a chair smiling lightly as she picked her book reading a few more lines.

_But this name is misleading by the fact that they are not on normal humans side but just as horrible a danger. Yet, the most strangest phenomenon is the fact that the strongest out of the two is still the devil-fruit users by an forbidden power to the public but only an "angel" can awaken this. This is why these "angels" and the fruits are to be very rare on earth. Because their powers aren't awakened unless a devil-fruit user interferes in their lives they always hunt and loathe them. Although they are mortal enemies by fate these two could be very dangerous when together. _

A piercing scream was heard through the narrow halls. Luffy was woken up to a sharp sting running across his back. He opened his eyes to see along chord resting by his head on the ground. Through the dimly lighten room his eyes followed the chord up to its handle expecting to see Cai's hand but only saw a slightly grayer hand of a man that looked slightly older than himself, more like Zoro's age. He was wearing a loose black long sleeve shirt that contrasted against his skin and a pair of worn jeans. While Luffy's eyes moved further up he noticed the long length of the guy's bangs reaching down past his chin while the rest of his unruly hair went as far as mid-neck. The ebony locks fell randomly over his face which held no emotion to the younger boy before him. His impassive stare through his blank green eyes sent unconscious shivers up Luffy's spine.

"Good morning," greeted an upbeat voice in the room. For a second Luffy thought the voice came from the strange guy but the voice was too feminine for that to be possible, so there must be another person...but where?

As if on cue another character popped out from behind the other person smiling slightly at him. Luffy glanced up at her surveying her too. Unlike the other two new acquaintances he had seen she was a little more brightly dressed. High heeled sandals clicked on the stone as she moved to the side of the older man holding on to his arm. Her wardrobe was fully seen revealing a short crimson skirt and a simple white top. Her long brown hair was tied back showing off her black rimmed glasses. She leaned against the man rubbing his arm before letting him go to look down at their prisoner.

"Time to wake up…Now." ordered the new girl smiling devilishly. The man with the whip struck him again crossing the earlier one across Luffy's back. Luffy cried out in agony as he felt the lash break through his skin of his already frail body caused by the collar. The boy steadily picked himself up into sitting position looking angrily at the two new strangers while bright red blood seeped through his white shirt and down his back.

The girl knelt in front of him smiling again with a glint in her hazel eyes. "Good boy," she mocked while reaching down to the shackles around his wrists. After his arms were free the boy sighed in relief before being cut off by the sudden lack of oxygen. The man had taken the chain attached to his collar dragging him across the floor out of the room choking Luffy in the process.

The girl sighed as she watched him being dragged out so roughly. "Go easy on him, Gaije, he has a long way to go and by the time we get to where Cai is he'll be suffocated!" said the girl. Gaije nodded stopping to let Luffy catch his breath before he was pulled again down the dim hall. The girl grimaced but followed them briskly walking in the gloomy corridor. Luffy reluctantly followed trying hard to keep pace with the guy to keep from choking himself again. Usually, he would have fought back by now but with his weak body there was no hope in that so he was keeping quiet for now. His bare feet padded against the cold floor while he looked around curiously at the passage. No matter what he looked at nothing gave a clue into where exactly he was. While he looked around the amount of light began to rise as they reached another room about 10 times as big as the previous room he was in. Instead of candles, large torches were lighting up the room hanging on the walls.

'Geez, haven't they heard of the new invention of the light bulb?' thought Luffy snickering quietly in his mind. His laugh was cut off shortly when he was thrown violently onto the floor. He held out his arms to soften the fall a little but couldn't totally keep the inevitable from happening. He looked up to see Cai standing in front of him unveiled with an threatening expression upon her face. The boy jumped at the sight of her black sockets, unable to get used to the sight. The other girl walked to her side still smiling devilishly at him while Gaije stood beside him firmly gripping the chain. Luffy pushed himself up on all fours watching the people around him.

Cai looked down at the red gashes seen across his back frowning a bit. "Why did you start without me, Doll? I wanted to hear his pain too." she pouted.

Awhh, I'm sorry I guess me and Gaije couldn't help ourselves again. You know I was just having fun." chimed the girl.

"What a weird name…never heard that one," whispered Luffy to himself. He cringed when he heard his comment echo through the room.

The girl looked down at him with her grin still out. "Oh, that's just short for the nickname, Dollface," she explained running her hand down her own cheek, " I mean don't you agree that I'm as pretty as a doll?"

Gaije rolled his eyes while Cai moved closer to Luffy before stopping in front of him ginning slyly. He was violently pushed down on his back by her foot causing him to arch his back from the contact his fresh wounds had with the ground. He hissed in pain when she stomped her foot down on his chest keeping him down as he wriggled beneath her. "Oh, where's my manners? These are my good friends Dollface and Gaije. They're here to help me beat the crap out of you." she explained politely, "they might not have anything against you but they're quite the sadists; besides, did you really think I was going to get my hands dirty with your pathetic blood?"

She kicked him hard in the ribs while he curled up in pain as his fragile bones cracked from the force. Luffy didn't dare scream not to give Cai the pleasure of hearing him submit to her .

"Damn you…What the hell? I still don't understand why you hate me. I never did anything to you." growled Luffy from the floor.

It doesn't matter if you did anything to me, you're a devil-fruit user and that's all the reason I need." Cai replied grabbing him by the neck. Her strength allowed her to lift him up so his feet dangled a few inches above the ground. Luffy grabbed her arm with both hands struggling to get free. He somehow suddenly bit down on Cai's arm as a last resort to get free causing her to yelped in response throwing him far off into the wall of the room nursing her small cut. Luffy hit the wall hard and slid down slowly, rubbing his neck when he hit the floor. His back throbbed from the previous engagement between the floor and Cai. Before he knew it he was being engulfed with a enormous sand hand reaching towards him coming from Cai's body.

"Fucking animal! Resorting to biting?" she yelled crunching his body in her "hand", "I should kill you right how!" throwing him back into the wall. She looked down at where he had bit her with repulse. "Disgusting, it looks infected." she whispered beginning to walk away.

"I hate it when people fight against me…why don't you get acquainted with these two while I clean this."

Doll jumped in joy while Gaije simply turned his blank eyes to Luffy. He sauntered over to the boy leaning on the wall and kneeled in front of him. Luffy stared angrily at him while the man moved closer to him. He tried to throw a weak punch in the man's direction only for his fist to be caught in the others hand. Gaije did not take his eyes off of Luffy while he spoke for the first time to he boy.

"Don't be an idiot and stop fighting back already. You're only going to get hurt." Luffy could have sworn he heard a little sympathy in the other's voice but the idea quickly vanished out of his thoughts when he heard a sudden crack and then an unbearable pain in his hand. He looked over at the man and saw Gaije lazily eyeing his hand breaking each one of his fingers.

Aghh! Stop it!" screamed Luffy as his index finger was bent back. Gaije only watched the younger boy's face twist in anguish as he broke the 3rd, 4th, and 5th finger consecutively. Luffy pulled back his hand quickly cradling it in the other hand while the man stared at his empty hand in boredom. "Damn you, when my crew finds me you'll be sorry." he hissed.

"Awhh, how cute! Do you think that your friends are going to save you?" asked Doll, "well I have news for you, they have no idea where you are!" She giggled walking up to them stopping next to Gaije. The man grabbed a fist full of Luffy's hair pulling him up in the process. "Go ahead baby, I want to see some blood," said the girl while smiling at the younger.

Luffy found himself on the ground again face down in the middle of the room. He heard the familiar crack of leather in the air above him tensing at the noise. Unfortunatley his body wasn't responding when he tried to get up. He shut his eyes sight as he felt the material cut through his skin creating another welt on his back. When another came down he screamed in agony feeling each wound etched into his skin. The blood from his back trickled down his sides as each blow was dealt. No matter how much he wanted to get away his body lay still forcing him to stay and feel every lash. He didn't know how many he was given but when they stopped he was dazed staring at his broken hand that was lying by his face.

Doll pressed her fingers into the boy's back feeling each welt causing Luffy to involuntarily tense up while he screamed from the contact.

"What a beautiful color" she said raising her blood drenched finger out of his back, "can't wait for more."

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_Starting off with the simple exercises first then getting more advanced methods. By the way just in case- Gaije's name is pronounced like the word gauge and if you're wondering where the hell Dollface came from- that's the actual nickname of a person. Like I said there are real people behind these faces…except for Gaije, he's a mix of 2 people. Oh, ya, Gaije and Dollface are a couple if your wondering. Anyway if you're confused ask and review. Yeah, there was a little more info added in there but I tried to make it mix in to keep the story going. Haha! I so made you read about the crew's predicament 1st on purpose! P _


	6. Blind Remorse

-1**So just want to say thanks for reviews and all and I got to say that some people can really seem to read my mind in what's gonna happen but soon enough. Anyway sorry for months of nothing but I had a few prior engagements. It seems I ran into someone that I have to see everyday for now that plays a certain role in this story and it's depressing and dis**_**heart**_**ening so I couldn't bring myself to write for awhile. -But you guys don't care, just an explanation of the absence.(No torture here just plain blood)**

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_Quiet sobbing was faintly heard through the crackling fire that engulfed the walls. There was nothing left untouched except the backroom of the small house. There were men laughing outside running through the streets. They were pirates. _

_Inside the house a 5 year old girl was curled on the ground surrounded by a 5 other men. She had her hands over her face with her knees to her chest making herself as small as possible against the wall. Her white nightdress was stained red by the pool of blood accumulating around her. She peeked through her fingers and glanced around her at the people in front of her, but her eyes rested on the two bodies behind their feet. Her parents lay dead and were inhumanely murdered before her eyes...in a way she had never seen before. They were killed by a monster with strange powers that seemed to be the leader of these pirates. Strangely enough his skin could turn into metal into any shape on his appendages. Her parents have told her of these people before, they were called Akuma no Mi users._

_"What's your name girl," whispered one of the men through his devilish smile._

_The child looked up through watering eyes. "M..my name is C..Cai," she stuttered before breaking down again, "I..what did you do to mommy?"_

_The one she marked as their leader kneeled down in front of her. "Awh, I'm sorry baby, your mommy's gone forever," he said patting her head, " just look at her over there." He turned sideways to give her a better view of the bodies watching her with delight cover her eyes once again. _

_Her father's body was brutally beaten with his rib cage completely smashed down. Cai only remembered seeing the leader turn his metal hand into a sledge hammer shape and brought it down on her father's chest. She couldn't even recognize him now that his whole body was splattered with blood from the implosion of his internal organs. Her father had tried to protect his family and paid the price._

_ Her mom was bleeding through the throat, her eyes wide, and her nightdress inside out. Her mother was brought into another room with 3 other pirates while her father was being beaten and murdered. All she heard behind the door was her mother's strained whimpers and screams and the strangers laughs and grunts, and then silence. When the little girl saw the door open she watched the leader drag her mom out unconscious. Her nightdress was then, for some reason, inside out and ripped in peculiar areas. The leader dragged her limp body next to her father's mangled one. Just as abruptly as her father was taken away her mother was killed with a simple slit of the throat by the leader's hand._

_The pirates roared in laughter above her as she cried for her parents. She was scared, and lost, and filled with rage. The beams of the house began to crash down while the fire raged on. She looked up at the men with fury as she stood up slowly suddenly filled with a rush of adrenaline. The men laughed harder watching her run to their legs kicking and puching at their shins._

_The leader grabbed a fist full of hair picking her up off the ground to his eye level while she kept flailing her limbs trying to punch his face. She glared at him while he simply smirked at her hopeless attempt to avenge her parents._

_"I don't like those eyes you're giving me," he said turning two fingers into needles, "I' hate it when people give me that look." _

_ A blood curdling scream echoed through the burning town. For Cai it's when her world went black forever._

_"Damn that was fun stuff!" cheered a pirate juggling boxes of loot towards the ship, "that was pretty awesome what you did back in that house, Captain Slyver._

_The captain snorted and took a shot out of the liquor bottle he jacked from the town winery. His men followed obediently dragging the stolen goods from the burning town behind them. They were already on the docks walking towards the ship; half the men were drunk and the others were just on a regular high of adrenaline cavorting around. Suddenly the men around him stopped abruptly behind Slyver with confusion and disgust written on their faces. Slyver looked up to find a small figure blocking the entrance to the docks. It was the girl that he had left for dead in the last house they raided but how could she still be alive?_

_She lifted her head slowly revealing the horrid image of the depths of her absent eyes. Dried blood was smeared down her cheeks contrasting with her pale skin that glowed in the moonlight. Her nightdress was slightly singed probably from walking blindly in the flames but what surprised Slyver the most was her impassive facial expression. _

_"What the hell are you doing here child?" he barked. She slowly tilted her head to the side perking her ears to the sound of his voice. _

_"Bye-Bye"_

_Slyver fell to the ground with a thud while Cai sat on his chest cross-legged with her hand drenched in blood. The men were shocked to see her use the captain's powers as they eyed the metal ax that was her hand while Cai mirrored her own expression of surprise of her newfound power. Their captain's head rolled on the deck stopping in front his crew to show his face screwed up in surprise and fear. _

_"How the hell did she use Slyver's powers?!"_

_"She's a demon!"_

_Panic broke out as all the men ran past the little girl and Slyver to pile on the ship while Cai made no move to stop them. The Akuma no Mi user was her only enemy. She only sat there smiling to herself while the yelling from the ships slowly receded as the ship drew away from the island. She stood up and carefully walked to the end of the dock and sat on the edge over the water still smiling innocently to the sky. _

_"I never knew I could do that…"_

_She rubbed her now normal hands curiously kicking her legs over the water._

_"Mommy always said I was special"_

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**Yep, just wanted to get Cai's past out of the way so you all know her reasons for being all revenge- like and cynical. Anyway, sorry for the length- I promise the next chapter will be much longer but I was busy with the piles of school stuff and a whole bunch of other stuff so Sorry again. Based on the last chapter or two I'm sure you figured out how she can copy Akuma no Mi/ Devil-Fruit users and on basic knowledge that once one sense in gone the brain focuses on another (loss of sightbetter hearing) so I didn't bother to explain it in the chapter. **

** 3cAnDy**


	7. Three Tortured Souls

-1**Sorry for the large gap of nothingness for how many months but I completely forgot about this story until just awhile ago. Anyway things like life and school are in the way so its no surprise for the lateness. So the boy that this story is based on completely broke my heart but that news is no use to you but that's over and done with. On the bright side, I'll keep going with this story even though that part of life has ended.**

**--**

Cai walked through the narrow corridors of the underground dungeon making the candles she passed flicker with the wind of her movements. Her face was downcast as the garments of her white dress flowed behind her in a eerie manner. She hummed a soft tune to herself as she made her way closer to her prisoner's cell, a devilish smile forming on her lips.

X

A loud cry rang through the small cell as Luffy woke up with the sharp pain from his back making him quickly roll onto his side. His eyes quickly scanned his surrounding only to see the same darkness that he was first welcomed with when he got to this hell hole. Luffy reached out to feel around for the wall and dragged his limp body to prop himself up with the soft jingle of chains echoing through the room. Carefully positioning himself off of his back, the boy tried to tend to his multiple injuries. It was bad enough that he already had unhealed wounds but now he had fresh ones to deal with and no friendly reindeer to heal them all. On the bright side, he was finally alone and had the time to take into account his condition and the predicament he had somehow found himself in.

"Eh?…all my old cuts opened up and are all sticky from dry blood," commented the boy as he began to take off the soiled bandages of his head, thigh and arms, "…these aren't my clothes….and why the hell am I in my boxers?!"

He sighed it off and lifted up his shirt to unwrap the bandages around his torso : bad idea. He forgot that they led around to his back and during the beating he had received, the whip had cut through the bandages and embedded pieces of them in the welts and stuck onto the dried blood on his skin. He bared his teeth as he forced himself to rip them off as quickly as possible from around his back. Breathing out in relief, he threw the successfully removed bandages into a pile. It hurt everywhere. He knew his ribs were broken from how hard it was for him to breath without any pain and he remembered his broken hand too but from head to toe he was covered in some injury that he knew would get infected if he stayed here.

' It doesn't matter as long as my nakama will come for me…Where are they? What's taking them so long?' he asked himself thinking about the whereabouts of his crew before he drifted back to sleep.

X

The large wooden door to his cell opened up as the candle above him lit lighting the whole room with its small flame. His three captors walked in but the boy did not stir despite the their entrance.

"I want his arms restrained for this visit" said Cai causing Doll and Gaije to approach the sleeping captain.

They roughly picked him off of the floor and unlocked the shackles on his wrist waking him up in the process. Hope evaded the boy as the two pulled him closer to the wall and locked his writs above his head from the chains dangling above him. Luffy shivered when Cai bent down to eye level with him, holding his head in place with her thumb and index finger squeezing his chin.

"Good morning sleepy head," Cai whispered through her fiendish smile, "looks like you had a good night." She ran her hand down his body and felt that his shirt was soaking up a lot of blood on his chest area. The woman stood up eyeing the pile of soiled bandages by Luffy and ordered Gaije to rip the shirt off. With out a word the man took out a dagger from a holster on his belt and made one swift slice straight down the middle of Luffy's shirt. Gaije stepped forward and ripped the rest of the cloth off of the bounded boy revealing the severe injuries from both their hands and from his previous battle. Doll giggled at the sight of both his body and, of course, the multiple wounds that pleased her vicious tastes.

"Oh no! It looks like your injuries are opening up again! Let me take a look at those." said Cai sarcastically.

Luffy sat half-naked in front of his captors wallowing in embarrassment and pain with his arms bound above him leaving him vulnerable. The immense blood loss was blurring his sight and clouding his mind while Cai once again bent down in front of him. She faced him forcing Luffy to focus on her empty sockets while she traced her finger over his gash making the boy flinch slightly from the contact. Her finger rested at the center of the gash while his unfazed gaze bore into her.

"I don't care what you do to me," Luffy said in a harsh voice, "my nakama will come for me."

Suddenly, Cai dug her nails into the wound ripping it wide open again. Twisting her nails to imbed her fingers farther into him she watched his face contort in anguish. Blood gushed out of the slash down his abdominal while he gritted his teeth trying to hold back his screams.

"You shouldn't have removed all those bandages," Cai said pulling her drenched hand out of the boy's body as she continued same process for the injuries on his arms and even his legs, "I'm not here to take care of you." The blood dripped from his arms onto his head - each droplet sliding down the strands of his bangs down his face- while the other wounds gushed out the crimson liquid in a steady stream down to the floor. His arms were released causing him to slump forward into the puddle of his own blood.

A rough material was forced over his head and around his neck. His dazed mind tried to comprehend what the thing could be as he felt it tighten around him. Luffy looked up to see Gaije holding a rope and was now proceeding to pull him along the floor. The rough material chafed his skin along with the sea-stone collar he already had on while he gasped for breathe from the ever constricting noose. Luffy grasped the rope around his neck trying to loosen it while Gaije pressed on behind the two girls. His clouded mind could not hear anything but only his eyes seemed to work, for he saw the girls move their mouths but didn't hear a single word. His body left a crimson trail while he was dragged on the ground, yet he was still wide awake, deprived of the luxury of unconsciousness and cursed to feel every part of his body cry out.

Gaije looked back at the young boy he was currently dragging on the floor. His small frame was shivering slightly as small clumps of dirt and tiny pebbles from the musty floor imbedded themselves into his large wounds. He eyed the collar around the boy's neck and the weak hand next to it trying to pull on the rope while his broken hand dragged on the floor. The boy looked up at him with desperate eyes still gasping for breath. Luffy could have sworn he saw compassion in the older man's eyes as he paused for one second to let him catch one breath without the knowledge of the girls. Just as suddenly as he stopped, Gaije continued on again turning quickly away from the thankful look on Luffy's face.

X

Nami stomped through the halls of the lower deck towards her room grumbling about what she had previously learned from Robin's book.

"Fallen Angels and Devil Fruit Users…What the hell! Stupid names, stupid girl taking Luffy, stupid Luffy for letting himself be taken away…" She rambled on and repeated herself over and over again while passing door after door until she came to a halt.

Before she realized it she had found her way to the infirmary outside instead of the girl's quarters and was now staring at the door reaching for the handle. She slowly pushed the door open and looked to the bed where her captain had lay that one morning. The sheets had brown blotches scattered everywhere from dried blood, since no one bothered to clean the room, in which Nami identified as the places where each of Luffy's limbs once laid. She slowly walked to the bed running her hands over the sheets before something caught her eye poking out from under the bed. She bent down and pulled out Luffy's straw-hat: the trade mark of one of the most wanted pirates alive, the only memento of his childhood that the crew understood, the most valuable treasure in his possession, and the item in which she looked to for comfort. Nami sat down with the hat in her lap turning it every so often examining the worn material. She remembered every time she had to mend it and the battles that went along with the damages. She remembered seeing his puppy eyes again as he waited for her to finish fixing it. She remembered his excited expression once she handed it back to him and her own feeling of happiness when she watched him run off.

"Why am I feeling this way?" she whispered to herself as she closed her eyes, "I'm getting so worked up over that idiot but I can't be…I mean he's just a friend." She placed the hat on her head and held on to the brim for awhile. "But when he was in here why was I so scared to see him hurt? And why did it feel like my heart was ripped out when he was in that bitch's arms and his eyes…" She noticed that she had tightened her grip on the hat, on the brink of tearing it apart, and quickly let go placing her balled up fists firmly in her lap. "Can I really be in love with him?"

The door opened slowly to reveal Robin standing in the doorway slightly smirking. 'Why is she always around when I'm doing something stupid' thought Nami, 'Can't I get any privacy?!'

"I'm sorry Navigator-san but I couldn't help notice hear a few things when I came here to clean this room."

"I bet, it just so happened that you wanted to clean the room the same day I came here - What a coincidence!" Multiple hands popped out from the sides of the bed that pulled the sheets off and folded them neatly before handing them to the older woman who then sat on the edge of the bed. With a flick of her wrist the arms disappeared as she looked over to Nami.

"There's no need for rude sarcasm I am not ridiculing you for your little problem. I'm just here to give you someone to talk to since I am the only other girl on this ship."

"What are you talking about, girl talk?" Nami asked in disbelief, "Don't you think we're a little too mature for that stuff?"

Robin stood up and made her way to the door. "If you don't want to talk about it it's up to you, Navigator-san; yet I just thought you would want to get it off your chest."

"Wait…you're right. It would be nice to get some of this our of my mind and out in the open." A long silence fell upon the next minute before the orange-haired girl looked up to the older woman before her for a second then back down to the floor. "I don't know why I care for him so much, why I'm feeling the way I feel when I think of him."

"Captain-san has an interesting way of attracting people to him but in a different way for each person." said the archeologist as she closed her eyes, "When I first rescued him from Crocodile's sand trap in the desert it was because I knew he was special in some way and that I NEEDED him to be alive." Nami looked up at the sound of the stressed word. "Luffy-san cares for everyone he comes in contact with, even his enemies, and because of that he was the first person to ever show me compassion since I was a child even though I was on Crocodile's side." Nami found it strange that Robin actually referred to their captain by his first name rather than his title like the rest of them. Then again, she would sometimes call Luffy by his name but only him which separated him from the rest of the crew in how they saw themselves in Robin's eyes. "I now feel a special bond with him and it has only grown stronger since the Water 7 incident." The older woman looked down at the other with a thoughtful smile still present on her lips. "Tell me Navigator-san, what did you feel when you first met Luffy-san?"

X

_Nami jumped off the ship into one of the smaller lifeboats with a sack of loot over her shoulders. She had just successfully raided most of the treasure off of a pirate ship that belonged to the pirate, Alvida, and was making her getaway. The marines had just arrived and there were the sounds cannons shooting in the distance with explosions and splashes from missed shots filling the air around her. Just then, another small boat fell from above and created a huge splash next to her. She shielded her eyes from the droplets of saltwater flying through the air with her arm._

"_Geez, who the hell?" _

_In the boat was another teenager with a younger boy with light purple hair and blue glasses. She peeked over her arm as the droplets died down around her and saw the raven-haired boy with a straw-hat held down on his head by his hand still braced for the impact with a huge grin plastered on his face. Her eyes widened when she looked in his eyes and he looked back into hers. For an instance, the smile he had on faded as she looked at her but reappeared in the next second when he turned again to the younger boy to prepare to sail away. She had an odd feeling inside of her as she watched him but dismissed the thought as she turned back to her bag of loot assuring herself that she will probably never see that boy again._

_X _

The intense light blinded his sensitive eyes due to the drastic change from the dark chambers he had spent the last 2 days, give or take. The rope around his neck was removed and he quickly took a huge breath of air. The renewed flow of oxygen cleared his senses as he once again gained his hearing and renewed his blurred vision. Luffy looked around the room he was in to see that it was a pure white with glass cabinets filled with various bottles and counters littered with tubes, powers, needles, and multiple vials of liquids. It almost seemed like a small sterile medical room. The ceiling was brightly lit by several white lights that bared down on him like multiple eyes showing with no remorse to his battered state. He turned away and looked over to the three people above him and saw Cai point her finger towards the back corner of the room behind him.

As Luffy surveyed the room from the floor he was roughly picked up and brought over to a lone metal chair screwed to the floor in the corner of the room. The chair had a long steel plate attached to the backrest with wrist clamps connected to the back of the plate and a contraption fixed to each of the front two legs of the chair. The moment he was placed in the chair Luffy's half-lidded eyes were jolted wide open from the freezing sensation or the cold metal coming in contact with his bare skin. Gaije bent down and forced Luffy's legs into the odd contraptions while Doll walked over to his side . When the man tightened the apparatus they began to constrict his lower leg and ankle with the metal loops, effectively restraining any movement in the boy's legs. Doll seized his arms and raised them up so that his elbows were bent on either side of his head and his wrists were firmly fastened by the clamps just above him behind the plate causing him to sit up straight against the chair.

"That's fine, now leave the room I want some time alone with him."

Gaije stood up and walked out of the room with Doll following close behind after she gave Luffy a quick wink and malicious smile. When the door closed behind the two Luffy's eyes darted over to where Cai was presently standing in the center of the room with her arms crossed and her absent eyes directed in his direction. Her white dress and pale skin blended in with the walls around her as if her body was part of the room. Only her black hair and eyes stood out in great contrast to her surroundings. She had no readable expression on her face that Luffy could read but he obviously knew that she wasn't going to give him a doctor's check-up.

"What the hell are you gonna do to me?" Luffy spat as he glared at the other.

The girl simply walked over to the cabinets and pulled out a medical mask and placed it on the table then took something else off the table before she made her way to the boy. "You have a lot of guts to yell at the one inflicting all these injuries on you when your whole body is open right now for abuse," Cai stated as she ran her finger down his cheek is a fashion of boredom. "All you Devil-fruit users are all the same, so prideful in themselves… but with pride comes ignorance."

Luffy's face screwed up into confusion as Cai spoke. "Huh? What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about what you all inflict on other people who are not like you: fear of pain and pain itself." She pulled out a long knife out from behind her back and waved it in front of his face. "Humans have a natural tendency to fear pain except for a select few such as your kind and especially you who runs into battle without a second thought. You are ignorant of pain because of what your powers grant you."

Luffy cocked his head to the side unable to sense the serious mood that surrounded him as usual. "What are you talking about I do that stuff for my nakama not for the fun of it."

"You can say what you want but I know that deep down all of you are the same," she said as she placed the tip of the knife just above his collar bone, "but now that you are basically human with that pretty collar around your neck you can feel every bit of this." With that she slowly pushed the knife into his body all the way until it hit the back of the chair. Luffy clenched his teeth behind his firmly shut lips once again not showing any signs of what she wanted him to feel and simply stared at her. She pulled out the knife just as slow as she put it in and let the blood pour from the wound. "Just as I thought, you still have so much fire and pride inside, that was to be expected."

She walked back over to the counter and began to feel through the contents on the table. "Well, it seems that physical torture doesn't hurt you that much seeing that no matter what we do you seem unfazed," Cai stated with her back still to him, "Yet, it's only been a couple of days so I'm sure that I will get you to break in no time." She took a test tube filled with a clear liquid and sealed with cork out from a test tube rack filled with the same liquid and began to put on the mask she had previously taken out. With her other hand she took an empty syringe and punctured the cork with the needle until the tip touched the liquid inside and proceeded to withdraw the liquid until the syringe was full. "Like I said before, I like that fire inside not only because it makes it that much more appealing see you break but because it's so attractive to my taste."

Luffy's eyes widened at the remark while Cai walked towards him with the syringe in her left hand while the other took off the mask and let it hang around her neck. She bent over him so that her face was half a foot away from his while her right hand brushed over his chest ignoring the gashes that her fingers went over and traced the lines of his tense muscles as the boy watched her hand move. She went down as far as his waist, to his relief, only to place her hand under his chin so that she could push his head up to reveal his eyes wide with shock. Her thumb brushed over his slightly parted lips before she softly placed her lips over his. Her hand moved to wrap behind his head grabbing a fistful of his hair forcing him deeper into the kiss until she broke away with a cruel smile.

"It's too bad I hate you."

She suddenly pulled his hair so that his head tilted to the right exposing his neck. Soon he felt the needle penetrating his skin and the sensation of the liquid flowing into his body just above the sea stone collar until she let go of his hair and took a step backwards.

"What was that?!"

"Hey, I thought you were cute so I just wanted to have a little fun that's all," giggled Cai through the mask she had put on again, "Besides it was a great distraction, right?"

"Not that! What did you put inside of me…."

He looked down at the floor feeling some sort of stinging in the back of his head that soon intensified and spread down his spine causing his back to arch out like there were a thousand needles penetrating his spine. He began to twist his body as he tried to break away from the restraints that bound his limbs and once again caused multiple wounds to bleed out adding to his anguish. Soon his eyelids felt like they were burning and his eyes were going to tear open and quickly shut them while his head fell forward. His heavy breathing was all that could be heard as he shook his head side to side until he was unable to fight the pain that embraced his body any longer. Luffy screamed as loud as he could and as long as he could to the ceiling until all his breath was let out and his head lolled forward when he finally fell unconscious again.

Cai smiled at the sound of his scream as she stepped forward to the limp body in front of her. She surveyed the boy by running her hands over his body to feel for areas of the sticky liquid. She felt the streams of blood running down his arms apparently from his nails digging into his palms, the blood from his old wounds… and the blood on his cheeks. She smiled to herself as she lifted his head. There was a small trail of blood falling from the boy's mouth down his chin and neck. His eyes were closed and relaxed but from between his eyelids there came a steady flow of blood that streamed down his face and dripped into his lap.

"Oh that? I just gave you a taste of what I had to grow up with everyday."

--

**Throughout the school year I learned a few random writing techniques that I used in some areas and I'm pretty proud of that. Anyway, so whatever Cai gave Luffy will be further explained in the next chapter but just to tell you most of it's background came from a disease called Acute Hemorrhagic Conjunctivitis (AHS) but I'm not going to use all it's symptoms and I'm going to add some of my own symptoms. There might be a little LuffyxOC in the upcoming chapters but it's obviously going to be one-sided. Ok so sometimes I fail to make Cai sound blind and I'm trying to catch those mistakes but sometimes they slip out so don't give me shit about that please. I'll try to update sooner. **


	8. Without Faith

**Sorry if you're really freaked out with my story but the rating changed for a reason and its going to get a little worse. If you are seriously not old enough to read this or have never had any knowledge or experience of the sick and demented things in this world we live in then I implore you not to read on. Also don't worry for Luffy's life; he's not going anywhere anytime soon. I've revealed the theme to a few of my reviewers so if you know it don't spoil it please! Oh, and I'm getting better at the length of my chapters being longer, this chapter the longest so far! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece **

**--**

"LAND!!"

Zoro cracked open one eye to peer at the small reindeer who was sitting on Luffy's spot upon Sunny's massive head. Chopper had one outstretched hoof pointing straight forward looking back at each member on the ship waiting to be acknowledged for his discovery. Usopp and Franky quickly threw down their cards from their game on the deck springing up from the floor to run to the railing of the ship jumping up and down out of relief and excitement. Robin simply put down her book next to the tropical drink the cook had brought out a couple of minutes ago on the small table and strolled over to Nami who already had her maps out staring intently out to the ever growing mass of land.

The crew had decided to find the nearest island in order to restock on supplies and establish a plan to find there missing captain. It has been a week since he was taken away and it was apparent that each member was dealing with some sort of stress due to the kidnapping of their leader whether it be as a friend or more but the sight of land did give some comfort for all. Yet, it was obvious that the navigator was taking Luffy's absence the worst in the group. She was now wearing his hat upon his head and hadn't let it out of her sight since she found it.

"Navigator-san" whispered Robin lightly tapping her on the shoulder to bring her out of her trance on the island, "it seems that you aren't as happy to see the island as the others." Robin waited for her to look up at her. "You should at least show a little enthusiasm."

Nami sighed as she turned to listlessly stare at the glistening water then to the boys happily climbing the rail to get a better look at the land ahead. "Why should I be any happier if we're not getting anywhere close to finding him?"

Chopper had jumped off of the headpiece and was now sprinting to where Zoro sat moving as fast as his little legs would let him. His hooves tapped on the ground in a consecutive pace warning the man of his arrival while he made his way across the floor. "Zoro!! What should we do now? We're getting close to the shore!"

Nami looked out to the island then back to the lower deck where the other members were staring at the swordsman who was now fully awake and slowly getting up. "Wait, why should he give the orders? He's not fit to be in charge!" she yelled making her way down the stairs to the lower deck.

"Eh? Why the hell not? I AM the first mate and since Luffy isn't here then I'm in charge!" Now standing straight with his arms crossed, Zoro's unblinking eyes followed the girl stomp her way down towards him.

"Don't you dare yell at my Nami-swan you damn moss head!" yelled the cook who had just stepped out of the kitchen due to curiosity of all the yelling out on the deck.

"Mind your fucking business I'm in charge and that's final!"

Nami walked up to him until their bodies were only mere inches away from each other as she looked up into his rock hard stare with her own cold glare. "I'm in charge until Luffy is found, got that?" she whispered in a bitter tone.

Chopper, Usopp and Franky watched in anticipation while Nami jabbed her finger into Zoro's chest provoking him even more to take swing at her even if she was a woman. "Just because you're wearing his hat doesn't mean you can run this ship." Zoro threateningly put a hand on the sheath of his sword while Sanji jumped off the railing.

Before a fight could occur between the three hotheads onboard, multiple hands popped out of the wood planks and their own bodies. Sanji fell from mid-air as he jumped down to the lower deck to try to kick Zoro away from Nami with his arms and legs restrained to his body by the hands. Zoro and Nami were struggling with the limbs trying to swing at each other although they were now bolted down to the ground and bound.

"Stop this all of you!" yelled Robin from above them. They all turned in disbelief to the sound of her stern voice that they hardly heard ever since the incident on the balcony at Enies Lobby. "We will not get anywhere with you three fighting when there are bigger problems other than who is in charge on this ship." The hands disappeared in a flurry of flower petals leaving the three to gather the small fragments of pride they had left behind. "Luffy-san wouldn't want to know that his nakama was fighting while he was away now would he?"

Nami suddenly ran down to the women's quarters while Robin signaled Sanji not to follow. The crew stood in silence from their respective spots until they were woken up by the sound of the swordsman's voice.

"Franky tie up the sail, Usopp climb up the mast and take down the jolly roger before they learn we're pirates, we can't take any chances of being chased at a time like this, Chopper take an inventory on your medical supplies so we can be ready when we find Luffy, and you, ero-cook, can also make sure to take an inventory on what you need in your damn kitchen." ordered the swordsman as he walked up the steps towards where Robin was standing. "Now get moving!"

The crew members scrambled all over the ship obediently following orders, even Sanji who walked into his kitchen with a small grunt. Zoro rested his arms on the railing next to the archeologist leaning forward to gaze at the island. "I knew you can be a little more responsible if you were put in the position to."

Zoro sighed while a small smile danced upon his face. "I told all of you that I can be smart if I wanted to but all I need is a reason."

A short silence fell between the two as they both stared out across the sea. "You have to keep your temper down… Everyone is taking Luffy-san's absence really hard and I just need you as his first-mate to keep the rest in check." Zoro looked at her with a questioning look on his face. "…I fear that the crew might tear each other apart."

X

"Can we get another round over here?!" yelled Zoro to the bartender. The crew had successfully landed on the island and were all seated at a local bar in order to settle down and form a plan to find their stolen captain. The bartender brought a platter of mugs full of beer for the members of the table except for Robin who was content with a cup of coffee.

"We have no clues at all of this girl or where she took Luffy," stated Robin after taking a sip of her beverage, "not one of my books has any information, whatsoever."

"Don't give up so easily! Luffy never gave up on you when you were locked up at Enies Lobby!" exclaimed Nami slamming her mug down. Robin was shocked that the girl was so wound up about Luffy's capture as to bring back such horrible memories to use against her.

"What the hell! What gives you the right to even bring that up?!" exclaimed Zoro also slamming down his mug.

"Settle down Nami we can't do anything if we don't know where to go. We need a plan," said Usopp.

"Baka! Luffy could be hurt right now and we're just sitting here!"

"So what do you want us to do? Sail around aimlessly? For all we know we could end up drifting farther away from him without any direction'" interjected Zoro. The table became silent as the busboy came to pick up the empty mugs from the table.

Zoro wasn't an idiot like the majority of the male members of the crew and everyone knew as the first mate he did have authority while Luffy was gone. It was interesting to actually see him revealing this newly discovered capability and it hadn't gone unnoticed by the individual members of the Straw-hat pirates. All began to easily adjust to his orders without any fuss other than the incident on Sunny. With the table silent, the group began contemplating on the next step.

"Hey what's all this talk about saving Luffy?"

The voice startled the crew out of their thoughts as they twisted in their seats rapidly looking in each direction around them, searching for the source of the voice. Four of the members' eyes widened at a certain table while the other two followed their eyes and stared curiously at who they were looking at.

The crew turned to find their captain's older brother, Portgas D. Ace, at another table with piles of plates around him rubbing his eyes awake. The Straw-hats sweat dropped realizing that he had just woken up from one of his narcoleptic episodes. Ace stood up and stretched his muscles as he made his way over to their table.

"Ace? What are you doing here?"

"The usual, I got a lead that Blackbeard would be around here but apparently I just missed him so I took a break in this bar."

Robin and Franky studied the man since this was the first time they ever laid eyes on Luffy's older brother. They took in his physical appearance which was completely opposite than their captain. Robin's eyes fell on the tattoo on his back which sported the mark of a member of the Whitebeard pirates.

"Hey there! I don't believe I have met you two the last time I ran into my little brother's crew," said Ace as he turned to Robin and Franky stretching his hand out in polite welcome.

"Hello Portgas-san, my name is Nico Robin," returned the archeologist shaking his hand, "I can't help notice your tattoo on your back and coming to the conclusion that you must be the infamous fire-fist Ace of Whitebeard's second division I have heard so much about."

Ace smirked at her while shaking Franky's hand. "Why yes I am and you are the infamous woman that was the center of the whole Enies Lobby commotion that I heard you were all involved in." he lightly laughed as he settled himself in a spare chair from a nearby table, "Well now that we're properly acquainted and know that we're both in the same boat of pirate infamy what's going on? Where's my little bro, running around the city as usual?" asked Ace smirking slightly.

The crew all looked intently at the floor, the ceiling, the candles, anything to avoid the gaze of the questioning man. Ace's smile dropped at the reaction to his question as he asked again the whereabouts of Luffy.

Zoro bravely looked up at Ace. "Ace, Luffy was kidnapped."

"What are you talking about? My brother isn't weak enough to be kidnapped! What's really going on?!"

"He was recovering from a battle when …some girl stole him using sea-stone," informed Nami.

"It's true Portgas-san, Captain-san has been taken by a 'fallen angel,'" said the archeologist. The name suddenly caught the attention of the whole bar and Ace himself.

"..What did you say?" he whispered clenching his fists.

"'Fallen angel'" she confirmed keeping a cool composure.

He banged his fists on the table causing his whole body to ignite from anger making all the heads of the bar turn quickly back to their drinks to avoid eye contact with Ace. Usopp and Chopper cowered down in their seats while Franky put up an arm to shield his face from the intense heat. Zoro and Robin both had their arms crossed and eyes closed calmly while Nami looked up into the rage filled eyes of Luffy's brother. "This can't be happening… Mina, this is serious. We have to find Luffy fast before it's too late."

"Why what's going to happen?" asked Chopper curiously.

"I'll just say that we could lose Luffy forever." Ace waited for the news to sink into the crew's mind yet the table didn't question the man further knowing that whatever he knew it was not to burden them.

"But we have no clues to where he is, He was taken in the middle of the ocean and there was fog everywhere so we couldn't see the ship she was on…if she had one," said Usopp.

"Poor Luffy!' sobbed the small reindeer.

X

Everyone including Ace was situated on Sunny along with the supplies they had bought from a few stores they had passed on the way to the ship except for Robin. The crew waited patiently for their missing nakama to return from her run to the town's library to do some research on the historical files and periodicals. Soon they saw her with a newspaper under her arm and a few books under the other walking towards the ship. As soon as she got on deck they all followed closely behind her and crowded around the coffee table outside where she laid down the paper to show a picture dating back 17 years in the past. An ashen town lighted by the rays of the sun appeared in black and white under the headlines: "Kyuushuu Island Massacre". Smaller pictures were dotted around the front page of mangled bodies found on the dock and around the city. Everyone's eyes laid on the picture of a girl around the age of 5 with bandages covering her eyes struggling with the doctors trying to help her. Everyone gasped reading the caption that revealed the only survivor of the pirate attack, a young girl named Itazuki Cai.

"Is that her!?" asked Chopper.

"I believe it is seeing that she fit's the description of what we do know even if she is a child in this picture."

Nami ran to her room and came back with a bundle of maps. She came back fumbling with a few rolled up maps looking up at the others around her with a troubled look. "I don't get it. I don't see that island on the maps at all nor have I ever heard of that island to begin with."

"Well of course you haven't, you were barely 1 when this disaster occurred," stated Robin, "the island was taken off of the newly produced maps and out of most history books in order to keep the catastrophe on the down low." She began to pull out a random book from the pile she brought onto the ship and flipped it open to the back where a few pages showed the discovered islands dating back 50 years. "The mystery of what occurred on the island, how the people died including the captain of the supposed pirates who attacked the island except for 1 child, forced the government to erase it from the maps so that further examination could be implemented in the case without distractions."

Robin pointed to the island with the label "Kyuushuu Island" in elegant letters. "From what I know, the case has been dropped by the government and now it is left as a deserted island with nothing but the crumbled remains of the city."

"Well that seems like the perfect place to hide Luffy seeing that no one is there and its whereabouts were erased from history." stated Ace gazing at his log pose on his wrist.

"And on the map it's only two islands away from the one we're on now!" exclaimed Usopp.

Franky stepped back into a celebratory pose with Usopp and Chopper dancing beside him. "SUPA! We have a clue to where Strawhat is!" The rest of the crew sighed in relief while Ace glided over to Nami's side.

"Even though we know where my brother might be we still have to realize that the island is going to be hard to get to with no directions getting there. You guys just got here so you don't know that this island takes 20 days to re-adjust to point to the next island but lucky for you I've been here for 15 days already." He pointed to the next island before Kyuushuu: "Hitoya Island" in the same elegant letters. "Now this little island has a catch to it which should be clear just by looking at the name."

The Strawhats gathered around the book to get a better look at the name. "You must be kidding me!" groaned Sanji as he took a step back to pull out a cigarette and a matchbook.

"Damn it, can this get any worse?" growled the swordsman while plopped down leaning his head against the railing. "Why in the world does the next island have to be a god damn penitentiary and marine base?"

"Well, they were established there to keep an eye on Kyuushuu and detour any incoming ships to the island after it and my guess is that it just evolved over time to be a prison." informed Robin.

"Wow, you know a lot about that island don't you?" asked Chopper.

Robin lightly smiled to the young reindeer while handing the book with the map to give the navigator a closer look. "Well, I was already 11 when the news spread around the Grandline so I once researched it for awhile out of my child-like curiosity."

"I guess were going to have to pass by this island and rough it out for Luffy's sake," sighed Nami as she put the book back down onto the table, "We have to still wait another five days here and who knows how long it will take to get to Hitoya…"

"We're just going to have to rough it out like you said, Nami," said Usopp patting her shoulder reassuringly, "Don't think about it. We will find Luffy in no time."

Everyone on the deck nodded in agreement before dispersing to get ready for lunch. Sanji retreated into the kitchen while Robin took a seat inside the kitchen to relax with new books she had bought. Usopp, Franky and Chopper were surprisingly napping along side Zoro most likely out of exhaustion from the excitement of the new plan. It was already past noon and everyone just wanted to settle down to try to get their minds off the task at hand yet, Ace was not calm at the fact that his brother was a prisoner of a mysterious enemy.

X

He had been held captive for a week already but to him, who had no mode of telling how many hours have passed let alone days, it had felt like an eternity. He was back in the small cell with his wrists locked above his head while he sat on the cold stone floor. It was dark. All he could see was black but then again it wasn't really because there was no light shining in the room. His eyes were covered tightly with white bandages that wrapped around his skull weaving through his black locks that prevented him from seeing anything around him. The dressings were soiled with his blood from his eyes that just never seemed to cease to burn and bleed. His anger grew towards Cai as he thought of the last time he had seen her in that white room a few days ago and how much she was putting him through for something he was not guilty of, for making his crew worry for his sake, and for the girl herself.

In all honesty, he felt sorry for how ignorant Cai was herself and what she had been through all the years of her life. Luffy was not one to jump to conclusions on a person and actually took time to contemplate and understand each person he came into contact with even if they weren't willing to do the same for him. Yet, he was so confused about who he should blame for the way she had turned out. He knew she had her reasons from when she let it slip about her family when he first met her but not all devil-fruit users were evil…right? His mind couldn't help drift to her words that she said to him on different occasions.

"_.. an insatiable lust for blood and eventually death"_

"_I'm talking about what you all inflict on other people who are not like you: fear of pain and pain itself… deep down all of you are the same."_

It was true that he had a reason to fight and that was because he was doing it for his nakama yet, he always had so much fun in his fights and always targeted the strongest of his enemies without a second thought. Luffy's mind began to spin as he thought of the possibilities of him actually enjoying the thrill of battle as a personal gain more than for the reason of helping someone dear to him. As he began to go into further depth of these possible assumptions his mind floated back into unconsciousness.

_X_

Some heavy footsteps followed by another lighter step came down the hall in a quick pace towards where Luffy slept. They stopped in front of his door and began to exchange a few words that only came as mumbles through the thick wood. The door opened and only one pair of boots stepped into the cell. Gaije walked in leaving his companion to walk away from the door while he made his way in front of the boy on the floor. He put a container on the floor near Luffy's legs and lighted the candle above with a matchbook from his pocket.

Gaije looked down at the smaller form before him taking in his appearance by the flickering light of the lit candle above him. The boy's body looked horrible with the inflamed areas around the various injuries still covered in dried blood and the purple and black tint coming through his skin on his hand from when he had broke it a week ago. His whole body was covered in dirt and blood. He bent down on one knee and lifted Luffy's head to inspect the bandages around his eyes. The sudden movement on his neck caused the boy to fall into a fit of coughs that brought up small amounts of blood that trickled down his chin. Gaije looked at the trail of dried crimson on his cheeks then up to the bandages soaked all the way through with same color. He began to unwind the bandages slowly while carefully supporting the boy's head with his other hand until he reached the section that had first hand contact with Luffy's face. He gently peeled the section off trying very hard to cause as little pain for the kid as possible. He opened the container he had laid on the floor and pulled out a clear bottle of water and washcloth. He thoroughly soaked the cloth and began to wash the blood off of Luffy's closed eyes.

As Gaije wiped off the last few traces Luffy's eyes began to flicker open. The man's eyes widened when the young captain looked up at him. Although his blood shot eyes were startling enough but what really caught Gaije off guard was the severe color change in the boy's iris. Luffy's eyes had turned to a pale blue color.

"Well it seems that the chemical is now in at the point of affecting the pigment in your irises," stated Gaije in a low whisper while regaining his composure.

"What are you doing?" asked Luffy in a feeble whisper. Gaije did not respond but began cleaning off a few of the minor cuts and scrapes around his body.

"Why are you helping me I thought you were on Cai's side?" questioned the boy again while he tensed every so often from the sting of the alcohol that Gaije was now wiping over his wounds.

Gaije paused for a second before unlocking Luffy's cuffs causing him to fall forward into his arms. "Look, you have no idea what Cai has in store for you so she asked me if I could clean you off giving me the reason that she thinks she might be going to far that she could possibly kill you if a little of your strength isn't recovered."

"Why are you being so gentle?"

The man simply sighed while readjusting the boy to lean on the wall once again. "She told me to be gentle." While Gaije spoke Luffy thought he saw that same look of compassion that he had before in the hall but once again it disappeared in a flash as he got back to work on his wounds.

Before he could say anything back to the older man his whole head was filled with an intense pain that felt like his skull was being crushed inwards and his brain was about to explode. Like it has been for the past couple of days the sensation traveled down to his spine and even through a few lines around the peripheral nervous system causing his body to involuntarily tense up in quick reaction. His eyes began to burn behind his tightly shut lids feeling the warm liquid build up.

Gaije watched him in self interest of his sadistic nature as Luffy began to squirm chaotically about once again causing the many injuries to bleed out again. As soon as he saw the bight red streams running down the boy's body he snapped back into reality and swiftly dove into the container and pulled out another test tube and syringe and transferred the blue liquid though the needle. He grabbed the thrashing boy, who instinctively latched on to him, and held him close to his own body with one arm around his back while the other stuck the needle near his spine between his shoulder blades. In a few seconds Luffy's body began to settle down while Gaije ran his fingers up and down his spine to loosen the tension and calm the connecting peripheral nerve cells. He pushed Luffy away from his own body and looked into the half lidded pale blue eyes to see the blood running freely down his face. Luffy stared back into his impassive eyes waiting for some sort of explanation.

Luffy ignored the silence getting straight to the point. "What was in the shot _this_ time?"

"It was an antidote for the spasms but not eyes."

The young captain figured that Gaije was a man of few words but this was getting ridiculous. "Could you at least explain?" he asked already irritated.

Just then, the door slammed open and Cai suddenly walked through the door. Gaije promptly stood up crossing his arms in the process. She bent down and ran her fingers over his body running over the fresh blood on his skin. "What happened? I thought you were actually fixing him up not beating him around, Gaije."

"He had an episode."

"You put in the antidote?"

"Yeah."

Luffy watched intently as the blind girl ran her fingers over his body debating on whether or not to attack her now. Even if he was severely weakened by the lack of nutrition and blood as well as the sea stone collar he could possibly get her through surprise attack and he did have his arms free…but then again, he couldn't move.

"Don't even think about it, I know you're awake." Luffy's eyes widened with disbelief. "I can feel your heartbeat quickening and can guess that you're ready to try to catch me off guard." She reached out her right arm to his neck and slammed him against the wall behind him with her abnormal strength. "I had a feeling that you would be to rowdy to let Gaije treat your wounds gently so I came up with another brilliant idea that's a little more uncomfortable but effective."

"It's not my fault that my body spasms out to the chemical that _you_ put in me! Didn't you hear your friend say I went through an 'episode' or whatever you call it!" protested Luffy while feebly trying to fight the grip strangling his breathing.

"Oh, don't go blaming other people when you know it's your fault," she said mockingly. Doll came through the door and stood beside Gaije passing something behind their backs to him. "It's ok we're going to get you all _washed_ up soon."

She threw Luffy face down in the middle of the room where Doll jumped on his back and pressed her knee down in between his shoulder blades causing his head to shoot back from the pressure and contact with the slashes. She took this chance to wrap his eyes with the blindfold she had hidden behind her back tying it tightly around his head. Luffy mentally cursed his close proximity to the power of the sea stone collar draining every drop of his energy to even move on his own will.

"We're ready for you, Doctor," giggled Doll bouncing over to hook her arm through Gaije's free arm.

"Good job, nurse," laughed Cai as she played along stretching out her hand towards Gaije's general direction in which he placed small bag filled with fine white crystals, "it's time for our patient to take a little dose of medicine." Ripping the bag open she compressed the crystals into a ball with the circumference of about that of a dime. She didn't even bother to try to ask him to open his mouth but rather stuck her finger nails into the barely healed welts on his back causing him to scream out as she planned. She popped the ball into his mouth and held it shut while rubbing the outside of his throat, forcing Luffy to swallow to his dismay.

He was suddenly scooped into Gaije's arms and slung over his shoulder while the other two girls walked ahead of them lightly giggling to one another.

X

Suddenly Luffy's heart was beating at a pace to what seemed like a thousand beats per minute as he began to sweat excessively feeling oddly hot while his blindfold began to feel unbearably itchy. His mouth was so dry that it reminded him of his walk through the hot Alabasta desert but ironically he had lost his appetite for anything in his stomach despite the week of starvation he had already experienced. His breathing increased along with his alertness as each little sound around him, whether it was the sound of a distant water drop falling to the ground or the actual heartbeat of each person around him in the narrow hall. His mind was fully awake now and restless to move around but still restrained by his physical limitations at the time while he waited impatiently to figure out where the three were taking him. Unexpectedly, his unprotected skin was met with a bone chilling gust of wind in which he somehow felt each of his cells scream out from the contact with the bitter cold. He could hear the crunch of snow beneath the feet of his captors but heard nothing further other than the soft howling of the wind, not another foreign voice. His fascination with his suddenly enhanced hearing was abruptly shortened as a scent caught his attention that he knew all too well…

He was thrown roughly down onto what seemed to be a wooden floor that was frozen to the touch and dotted with patches of ice. His heightened senses made the sting of the ice feel more like spikes penetrating his skin and the wind like the lashes of a whip. He involuntarily curled into a ball while the three loomed over him.

"It seems as if his body has reacted pretty well," stated Cai, "can you go get that rope over there and tie it somewhere secure?" Gaije grunted in reply while his boots reverberated through the wooden planks as he moved about. Luffy felt a tug on his collar and the material of the rope scraping against his neck. A quick yank to test out the strength of the knot and all moving around him ceased.

Cai turned to the shivering boy at her feet with the rope knotted tightly to his collar. Doll stepped forward and took off the blindfold to expose his wide eyes. She smiled at the sight of his now dilated eyes that were quickly darting around trying to take in his surrounding. His vision was slightly blurred but the unreal speed that his mind was registering everything around him was what really captivated him. Since his eye sight was poor he could not take in the detailed characteristics of the main part of the island in the distance but could only make out that it was covered in snow. Just as he thought, they were by the ocean by the strong smell of the salty air and he was sitting on an ice covered dock. From what he could see, the rope attached to his collar ran behind the trio hovering above him and laced itself around a rope tie that usually stopped ships from drifting out with the current.

"What are we doing out here?" he asked with a raspy voice from his dried throat.

"Heh, before we actually get to treating you I wanted to show you something." Said Cai as she knelt down beside him. She bent his neck in an uncomfortable position towards the open sea and pointed out to the horizon. "What do you see?"

Luffy raised a brow at the question. "Nothing but ocean and clouds…"

"Exactly, nobody has been out there for this whole week you have been here and nobody ever will be, including your precious nakama." She proclaimed letting go of his neck. Luffy's eyes widened in shock but soon narrowed in anger to her words.

"No! You're wrong they will come for me!"

Cai stood up straight and walked to the edge of the dock. "What makes you so sure? It's obvious that you would go after them and risk your life but did you ever stop to think if they would do the same?" The boy exhaled deeply as his breath came out in a white cloud before him. "Who will come? The shooter who barely has any courage to save himself? The archeologist, who has always lived her life alone and survived by manipulating people in her favor?" She turned back around walking slowly back to him while naming each of the rest of his crew. "What about the young doctor? Do you really trust him or the shipwright who just joined you? And what about the cook and swordsman? They both have extravagant dreams that they don't necessarily need you to accomplish. Oh, and this is my favorite. The Navigator who treats you like an idiot and still hasn't bothered to say "thank you" to you despite all that you have done for her, for your crew. How much faith do you have in them?" Luffy stayed silent. He knew that she had to be wrong but then again all she said had some truth to it and could possibly be very well true. "You're so naïve to even believe that they cared for you the way you do for them. Have you ever thought to think that they were just using you to fulfill their own dreams under your protection from any danger they might run into?"

"That can't be true…"

"Oh, but you don't know that for sure and for all you know I could be right. All they have been doing is using you as their machine to defeat whatever gets in their way and as one of the strongest devil fruit users why wouldn't they take advantage of your naïve nature?"

Luffy stared blankly forward as he took in the poison that Cai was feeding him without a fight. His body was in so much pain right now from the injuries and cold around him but it didn't hurt as much as his heart did. Could his "nakama" actually be nothing but smoke and mirrors before his eyes? No, it was all just a lie … damn this headache! He wanted to deny all her words but she had finally found the sweet spot in his self defense: his friends. He still had faith that they would come but his doubt was beginning to form.

Cai took note of his silence while Doll bent down examining his face for why he stopped fighting out of immature curiosity. A sadistic smile formed on her lips as she realized that she was finally dead on in what could finally break this kid's will as she listened to his heavy breathing .

"No…you're wrong they will come." Responded the boy but Cai sensed the doubt in his voice.

"Suit yourself," she said while she placed her heel on the boy's chest, "that's enough of that anyway. We need to treat those injuries!" she exclaimed through her obvious sarcasm. Luffy found himself falling off the edge of the dock towards down to the icy water below from the force of her kick.

As he hit the water below his whole body screamed out from the new sensitivity of his skin. It felt as if his body was being engulfed in flames from the intensity of the low temperature making each of his cells cry out again. His mind began to move rapidly again as it started to panic from being in the water like every other devil fruit user's fear. Looking up through the murky water he watched the light slowly fade coming through the surface while his body became an anchor dragging him down through the depths. When he was kicked off the edge he didn't have enough time to take a breath and his lungs were paying the price. He already began to feel the suffocated feeling constricting his lungs, yet he was helpless as his body stiffened from the effects of the devil fruit and the cold. Suddenly, he began to understand what Cai meant when she said that she wanted to treat his wounds. Each of his injuries began to sting with the contact from the salt water around him as the crystals began to embed themselves in his skin. He wanted to scream so bad but instead he closed his eyes trying to bear with the pain. It felt like when Cai had twisted her hand into each of his gashes but this time each of his injuries felt it at the same time rather than one by one. To make matters worse, his neck abruptly felt constricted as he stopped his decent down the water.

He didn't understand why his body was acting so strange making everything that touched it seem worse than usual. His eyes widened underwater in sudden realization as the tug on his neck increased and he felt himself being pulled back up to the surface. When he was dragged to the top of the deck he was already gasping for air while at the same time coughing up a little water that had gotten into his lungs.

"Well, look at that! You look better already!" exclaimed Doll jumping up and down, "Isn't this fun!?" Luffy's body was shivering uncontrollably now and was looking unhealthily pale. His wide eyes were fixed on their feet while he curled into a ball again before them.

"Yes, look at that, all his blood washed off in the water and his wounds aren't bleeding out that much. Isn't salt just the amazing?" said Cai bending over the shivering form, "What's wrong? Don't you like the water?" Luffy didn't answer but instead, tightly shut his eyes, further curling into himself. "Does it hurt?"

"Wha-a..what's wro-ong with by body?"

Cai put her head in her hand in an action of mock thoughtfulness. "Hmm? What do you mean?"

"Th-the wuh-white stuff."

"I don't really know if it's white, but I think I know what you're talking about!" she declared, "Hehe, that is one of my favorite drugs, the amphetamine. It's quite an interesting stimulant drug that mainly speeds up your nervous system so that you would be able to feel every bit of torture times three! I'm pretty sure you can guess the other effects in your first trip."

Doll hopped over to him quickly scanning his body. "Talk is boring….I wanna do it again!" she squealed pushing his body back over the edge. Luffy fell back down into his watery descent overwhelmed with the extreme pain once again. This time, they left him under water for just over two minutes before dragging him back up.

"Let's go back in I'm getting tired of this cold," said Cai turning on her heel back from where they came, "Gaije, can you please take care of that thing?"

Gaije grunted in reply turning back to the boy on the deck. As he moved to touch him the boy whimpered causing him to back away. Frowning somewhat, he scooped Luffy into his arms with careful consideration of his fragile state. Luffy instinctively sought warmth from Gaije's body turning into his chest. Gaije let him do as he pleased walking behind the girls trying to ignore the intense shivering from the form in his arms.

X

Ace was pacing up and down the floor at the back of the ship with a look of deep concentration plastered on his face revealed by the light of the full moon. "With a bounty like his it's no wonder that 'angel' went after Luffy." he whispered to himself, "Luffy's strong and his will is even stronger but everyone has a limit and I can't take any chances."

"You really do care for him don't you?"

Ace spun around to find the navigator of the ship watching him with her arms crossed and her own look of concern in her eyes. "Well of course I do, he's my little brother." he said with a slight hint of annoyance.

"What exactly did you mean by 'we might lose Luffy forever' back in the bar?"

Ace quickly crossed his arms and looked away into the ocean. "It's none of your concern as long as we get to him soon." he whispered. He walked past her down into the kitchen leaving Nami to contemplate the ever growing secrets that held Luffy captive.

"Is he going to die?" she whispered.

**Hitoya – means prison or penitentiary **

**I'm sorry if it sounds rushed but I've been jumping all over the country and have been having a hard time getting some time to type this up. If there are typos or hard to read areas then just pass it by me and I'll try to clear it up. Yes I did make Zoro a little more knowledgeable that he really is because I can't make Robin do all the mature talk and of course I needed Ace in there, I mean his brother's life is on the line so a little sibling love goes a long way and stuff. There is no yaoi between Gaije and Luffy so get over yourself but I'm sure you can guess what role Gaije will be taking up soon. This is a LuNa fic anyway. Yes, drugs do seem to be showing up a lot here but if you know about amphetamines or their close cousin ecstasy than you know a little more. So seriously please review if you think I should continue or not because they actually give me more incentive to actually try and give me a little push to actually update sooner if people want me to. The ones I've received so far are great so thanks! **


	9. The First Incision

-1**Well this was hard to write since I just got back from Chicago. This is drawl. **

**All I can say right now is that I hope you people understand the difference between "X" and "X". The later means a switch from the crew's story to Luffy's or visa versa while the single "X" just means a change in scene.**

**Disclaimer : I don't own One Piece**

_Nami's POV_

_The sun was setting and everything was calm on The Thousand Sunny. Everyone was doing what the usual activities after dinner like playing tag, reading a book, cleaning the kitchen or simply taking in the view. From the top balcony I surveyed the crew letting a small smile creep onto my face. I looked out to the sea ahead and saw his silhouette casting a long shadow down on the deck. He was on his favorite spot at the head of the ship looking straight out in the ocean towards the setting sun on the horizon. Immediately, I was drawn him. My heart began to beat harder as I walked down towards him by all my other friends who strangely paid no heed to my existence like I wasn't even there. The butterflies in my stomach began to flutter furiously around the closer I moved to the Lion's head. When I finally made my way to the spot right behind the headpiece I could do nothing but stand in his shadow taking in the calming aura around him. Nevertheless, when I actually tried to open my mouth the butterflies in my stomach flew up to my throat automatically cutting me off before I could say anything. Looking up at him I watched his hair flow in the breeze while his straw-hat was lay on his back held by the string around his neck. I could feel the blush on my face as I quickly looked down at the wooden planks beneath my feet. I gulped the butterflies down back in my stomach._

_"Hi Luffy"_

_He flinched slightly as if he was startled by the sound of my voice. Slowly, he turned around on Sunny's head. I didn't see the usual wide grin and vigor that I was used to but instead a look of depression and defeat adorned his face. My heart sank at the sight. It was so unlike Luffy to look so sad. I knew I should say something but the words had left me. All I could do was stare. _

"_Where are you?" he whispered. _

"_What do you mean? I'm right here"_

_The sun was already seconds away from disappearing behind the horizon and the sky was quickly darkening as a result. As the last of the sun fell from sight he closed his eyes and hung his head. The sky around us had somehow completely gone dark with nothing but the moon looming above us that lit his face in an eerie glow. A shiver traveled up my spine. I turned around to look to everyone else if they had witnessed the odd abrupt change in the sky but the deck was empty._

"_Where did everyone go? Luffy do you know wha…!"_

_I turned back to Luffy who was sitting on the lion's head with the pale light of the moon washing over him. His eyes were still closed but his face was unnaturally pale. Yet, I was more focused on the streams of scarlet blood running down from his eyes. _

"_What happened to you?!"_

_I reached out to touch him but as my hand came up to him he seemed to get farther away. Suddenly, the ship disappeared from underneath us and I found myself in an empty area with nothing but black space that I was somehow able to stand on. I scanned the area and saw him sitting in the distance with his head down and his hat now missing. I was now running towards him in the unknown realm but again he got further and further away from me the more I ran until he was out of site. My surroundings had disappeared and I was aimlessly running in a world of complete darkness. I fell on all fours gasping for breath. I felt lost and scared in this new world but most of all I was worried. _

"_LUFFY! WHERE ARE YOU?!"_

_Just then, a white spotlight appeared to the left of me and revealed him in middle of the circle of light… but he looked different. He was lying down with his arms on either side of him but all over his body there were bruises and horrible wounds that were oozing out blood that pooled around his body. I ran over to him and fell on my knees beside him not even caring that I was sitting in his blood. My cheeks began to heat up when I noticed he was in nothing but his black shorts but I quickly tried to block the thought out for a the more serious problem. I put my hand on his chest and felt a faint beating from his heart to my relief as I looked up to his face. Now, his eyes were hidden behind a blindfold but there was still blood smeared across his cheeks. I wrapped my arm around his head cradling it gently in my embrace but as I lifted his head I heard a soft jingle. I pushed him away just enough to see the blue-ish green collar around his neck with a metal chain._

_The spotlight widened slowly revealing the rest of the length of the chain link by link until it reached its end. The other end was held loosely in the pale hand of a veiled figure. My eyes widened at her appearance as I held Luffy's limp body closer to me._

"_It's you.."_

_I couldn't see it but I knew she was smiling behind that veil. She suddenly began to laugh insanely as her hand gripped harder on the chain. She took a step forward. My heart was filled with fear, my mind ordered me to run, my body refused to move. I could only tighten my hold on Luffy's body while she moved closer to us._

"_Are you trying to protect him from me?"_

_X_

3rd Person

Nami jolted up in her bed covered in a thin sheet of sweat looking around the dimly lit room. Robin was staring at her from the chairs in front of the beds with a curious look on her face. She tried to calm her breathing as she got up from her bed.

"Is there something wrong, Navigator-san?"

"It..it's nothing, I just had a bad dream...I need to get some air," stuttered Nami while she opened the door.

"If I may ask, about what?" asked Robin putting down the item she was holding in her hands.

Nami stood in the doorway for a few seconds before turning her head slightly to the older woman. "Just had a dream that someone stole my treasure, that's all," she explained before closing the door behind her.

Robin stared at the door for awhile before she turned back to the item she had set on the circular table. At the previous island she had bought it at a local shop due to an odd instinct that told her to buy it. She turned it in her hands until it showed the gold name plate on the bottom. "Seidou island" she read out loud to no one, "I have a feeling this will be of good use to us."

Up on the deck Nami was welcomed by a blast of cold air. Crossing her arms, she started walking to the front of the ship under the starry sky. They had already set sail for Hitoya 3 days ago after Ace's log pose had finally set on the next island. Just a little over two weeks and now she was starting to have nightmares about Luffy and that girl. She somehow unconsciously walked over to Sunny's head. Maybe sitting where he always sits would make her feel better in some way or another. Taking a deep breath she climbed up on top of the lion's head and settled down to stare at the black sea in front of her while the wind blew through her hair. Maybe that was the reason he always sits on this spot was because it was so relaxing and peaceful on the lion's head.

"That was the creepiest dream I've ever had," whispered Nami bringing her knees up to her chest, "It seemed so real in the beginning but then...wow." She looked up into the stars in deep thought.

"_Are you trying to protect him from me?"_

Nami nearly fell off of Sunny's head when she heard the voice abruptly come across her mind. Gathering herself back to her center of balance on the lion the gears in her mind suddenly started to turn. "Wait! Those were the same exact words that she said before she took Luffy!" she exclaimed to the ocean,"..oh great, now she's rubbing it in in my dreams." Her fingers curled into fists on her lap. Thinking about that day she couldn't help but feel frustrated that she could do nothing to help. She was useless like the rest of his nakama who couldn't do a thing to save their captain for whatever fate he had in whatever place he was in. "And now all I've been doing is moping around the ship while he could be..." Before she could finish the thought she jumped back off the head piece and towards the kitchen. "Nah, what am I saying? That stupid idiot probably found a way out already and he's just waiting for us to find him."

Inside the kitchen she sat at the table while she waited for her water to boil on the stovetop while a lone cup and tea bag lay next to her tapping fingers. "What could possibly be happening to him as I just sit here? I just wish he would pop right in here so that this nightmare can be over..." whispered Nami, "All these years I've only put myself first in my life but now I realize he somehow made his way flawlessly into my heart. I've been denying it for so long but Robin's right... I do love Luffy" She put her hand over her heart that was crying out. In the background, the kettle began to scream.

X

Sanji swung the door open hard enough so that it slammed on the wall behind it. The loud smack woke Nami up instantly from her doze on the dining table. Completely catching her off guard, she fell off the bench in heap.

"Oi! Sorry to wake you Nami -swann" apologized the cook with his heart shaped eyes looking her up and down sprawled on the floor. In the blink of an eye, Sanji was on the floor with a large red bump on his head while Nami stood above him with her hands on her hips.

"Why did you make so much noise with the door you idiot!"

Sanji sat up on the floor peering up at her with his visible eye while rubbing the throbbing pain on his head. "Oh yeah, the navy island can be seen already in the distance outside, just thought you might want to know." Nami straightened up a little at the news staring at the wall in front of her. "Oi, are you ok?"

Nami turned to run out the door after leaving Sanji an order to prepare a quick meal before their arrival on the naval base. Obviously, there was much to do before they actually attempted to land on Hitoya other than the usual routine with coming to a new island. Being one of the biggest threats to the government, they had to disguise themselves and their ship to get anywhere near the island.

"EVERYBODY! GET UP HERE NOW!" she screamed at the top of the stairs to the lower deck. The sounds of the doors creaking open and low groans filled the hall as the rest of the crew dragged themselves on deck.

"Nami, what's going on?" asked Usopp who was still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes," what's with all the yelling?"

"That is what's going on," stated the Navigator pointing out into the ocean. All heads simultaneously turned to the direction her finger was pointing.

"Holy crap! We're here already?! I didn't expect it to be so quick!" yelled Ace is surprise running to the rail to get a better look. His brow furrowed as he studied the island that was just a dark lump on the horizon just barely visible by the first lights from the rising sun.

"Yeah, now we're here but the problem is that we are pirates, one of the most wanted, and that's a naval base!" interjected Nami crossing her arms, "We have to come up with a plan to get on without getting captured."

"The Thousand Sunny was just made so I'm sure the navy won't recognize her as the Straw-hat's ship," exclaimed Franky with a glint in his eyes behind his sunglasses, "She won't get us into any trouble!"

"All we need to do is take down the flag," said the reindeer who was already half way up the mast.

Ace turned around and glided over to the group with his hands in his pockets. He looked at each member of his infamous brother's pirate crew. "What about your faces? Since you're his crew, you have huge bounties on your heads that are posted everywhere." The deck went silent for a moment. It was true that since the Enies Lobby incident they were now all targeted by the government instead of only Luffy, Zoro, and Robin. "All of you need a disguise of some sort."

Usopp stuck his hand in the air waving it frantically from side to side. "I think I got the perfect thing if we need a disguise!" He scampered down to the men's quarters and soon reappeared with a huge chest that he was struggling to bring up the stairs. Zoro sighed before taking the chest out of the sharpshooters hands with ease and brought it up on deck. "I could have done it myself..."

"Ohh! I've seen that chest in the room but I couldn't get in with the lock!" exclaimed Chopper running to the front of the group for a first row seat with the flag in his hold.

Usopp settled in front of the chest and fished around his pockets to pull out a key. "Well now, these are my treasures so I like to keep them safe, "he said smirking at the small reindeer. Unlocking the chest he popped the top revealing different clothing of various colors stuffed to the brim with a small picture of Kaya at the top. Usopp quickly snatched the photo up and stuffed it in his pocket earning curious gazes from everyone except for Nami and Zoro. "... anyway, I have a lot of costumes in here that I picked up from a few areas just in case something like this would ever happen we can use."

"Wow look at this!" said Chopper digging into the chest, " how do you have Soge King's mask?!" The reindeer pulled out the mask playfully putting it on his face. Usopp quickly snatched the mask out of the young doctor's grasp.

"Uh, it was a gift...yeah! The Soge king gave it to me in thanks of letting him take my place with all of you at Enies Lobby!" said Usopp who proudly flaunted the mask in front of Chopper.

"So awesome!" squealed Chopper. The rest of the crew groaned.

"Hey! Before you all start playing dress-up breakfast is ready!" yelled Sanji from the kitchen door. Robin and the guys filed into the kitchen one by one leaving the deck a quiet wasteland. Nami waited for their backs to disappear behind the door before she herself moved towards the kitchen.

"So you want to know what could happen to Luffy?" asked a voice from behind her. She swiftly turned around to find Ace coming up the stairs from the lower deck with something in his hands.

"Wait, how did you get down there so quick? I thought you were with us up here." she asked. Her eyes quickly fell upon the item he was delicately handling- Luffy's straw-hat.

"I went down when everyone crowded around the chest Usopp brought to look for my brother's treasure. It seems that I found it by your bed with a little hint from your roommate." Nami visibly seethed thinking that Robin might have basically told him about some things she shouldn't have. "You ok there? You're looking a little red...getting anxious about the island or something?"

"No! .. I mean What did Robin tell you exactly?" said Nami shaking her head to relieve her anger.

Ace raised a brow at the question as he leaned on the railing near her. "Just that it would be in the girl's cabin, why?"

"Just wondering"

Ace started to turn the hat in his hands staring intently at it for awhile as if he forgot that Nami was even there. "Anyway," he said looking at Nami, "I've been thinking about how you were the only one to actually confront me about what I said in the bar and I think I can see that you are by far the one most worried about my kid brother's safety." He tilted his head down so that she couldn't see his eyes anymore behind his own hat but she was able to see a little smile on his face. "I can see this not only by how you're keeping his treasure safe but I know how you feel about Luffy now."

The girl's eyes widened at the man in front of her while a flurry of butterflies raged in the pit of her stomach. "Wha..what are you talking about?"

"I was out on the deck last night staring out into the sea to clear my mind of some not so happy thoughts when you came out. I was going to say something but then you started talking to yourself and I decided to listen," he admitted looking back up to her with a familiar grin on his face. "Then when you went into the kitchen I actually heard your little self confession easily through the door. Sorry I eavesdropped but I got a little curious." By now Nami was blushing like crazy looking down at the floor. She suddenly became uncomfortably hot while beads of sweat formed on her forehead. She started rocking from one side to another while an uncomfortable silence fell between them. "...I'm sorry if I embarrassed you but it's okay. I'm not laughing or anything. I'm actually glad, but we have to get to the more serious matter of Luffy's situation now."

"Yeah you're right..." replied Nami trying to regain her composure.

"Ok then, what exactly do you know about these angel's and the devil fruit?"

Nami leaned on the railing next to Ace and stared down into the water. "Robin said that angels hate devil fruit users and something about being enemies...oh, and that angel's awaken something that make the devil fruit the most powerful that's really all I know."

"Well, that's exactly what could happen," he said "what that girl can awaken in little Luffy and how she does it can cause us to lose him forever." Nami turned away from the water to look into his eyes waiting for him to continue, "Whatever the worst case scenario that you can possibly think could be happening to Luffy right now may be actually occuring. That girl is going to torture him in the most inhumane ways not only physically, but also mentally and emotionally until there is nothing left inside."

"What are you saying? That his spirit is dying? That's impossible! Luffy is like a stone wall."

"Not exactly. Everyone has a weak spot and by now I'm sure that 17 days has been enough time to find it." he explained, "But that's not even the bad part. That thing... that angel can awaken the true power of the Devilfruit."

"So she's not going to kill him but..." she began," wait, isn't that ok if he has that because in Robin's book it said it will make him the stronger one."

"No she will have control over every part of his body" he said slowly, "yet, Luffy...he won't be able to fight because...well.."

Nami stood up straight and turned the rest of her body to face him. "Just say it"

Ace looked down at the floor boards while the straw-hat wavered in his loose hands in the wind. Nami saw the depression his face. "The Luffy we all know and love will turn into nothing but a sadistic monster with a lust for blood and death."

"What? I don't understand.."

"He will destroy and kill everything in his sight, his mind will be smothered in darkness. I don't know what will happen to him physically but inside it will be like our Luffy died."

Nami stood stiff from shock with her mouth slightly open and eyes wide. No words could form. Her mind couldn't even imagine her kind innocent captain turn into such a horrible thing. No way that the person she fell in love with would die inside and be nothing but a memory. It must be a lie... but why would Ace lie about his brother's fate?

Ace looked back up to her and took in her shocked expression. "Are you.."

The kitchen door opened with Sanji peeking out searching for the two on the deck. Spotting them he raised a curly brow at the two standing so close to each other. "...aren't you two coming in for breakfast?" Not a single response came from either of them as the walked to the kitchen not even looking at each other. Sanji's eyes followed Ace while he closed the door behind them.

X

A small naval ship drifted to the side of the Thousand Sunny with 6 marines and an officer aboard. They eyed the ship with suspicion since no one seemed to be out on deck despite how close to shore they already were. "Hello! Is anybody up there?" The sound of heels hitting the wood flooring hit their ears as a woman peered down at them from the rail.

Robin studied they're expression of surprise but saw no alarm on their faces. It seemed that they didn't recognize her, then again, she couldn't even recognize herself. She was wearing a yellow sun dress that went down to just below her knees with simple white slippers and a matching hat. Her hair was hidden underneath a brunette wig of curls that went down past her shoulders while every inch of exposed skin was covered in a powder that made her a little lighter than her natural tanned color. "Hello there, boys! " she greeted with fake accent filled with enthusiasm, "Do you need something?"

"Yes ma'am, you are heading towards a government base. We would like to know a little information about your purpose here and if anyone else is on that ship of yours with you." stated the officer.

Zoro appeared next to Robin looking down at the ship "Who are you talking to down there, _Melony_?" he asked with subtle sarcasm. Robin looked at his appearance with amusement. His obvious green hair was under a mop of wavy black hair that went down past his neck and kept falling into his eyes. A dark green t-shirt fit loosely around his body, blue shorts, and his boots completed his casual wardrobe.

"They seem to be marines from the island we're going to, _Ethan_" she said innocently, "they want to see everyone on the ship and know who we are."

"Yeah, we're just from the previous island on the ocean for vacation," he explained carefully, "just trying to relax from home."

"I see, who else is on that ship with you?"

"Just friends. Do you want to see them?" asked Robin politely. The officer nodded signaling her to disappear from sight to get the others. She returned with 3 others. Usopp was wearing something similar to Sanji's usual attire but with a white dress shirt and black pants and shoes. His black curly hair was tied back and covered with a white bandana. There was no real danger of showing so much of his face since he was labeled as Sogeking on his bounty. Sanji was wearing a brown wig that went down just past his eyes to hide his curly brows and down mid neck. His attire consisted of a black t-shirt and kaki shorts with sandals. Nami was in a white dress almost exactly like Robin's but a little shorter with white sandals. Her hair was a mess of blonde curls that went midway down her back.

"This is _Julius, Shawn, and Dominique_" said Robin as Usopp, Sanji, and Nami waved their hand when they're fake names were called. All together the group looked just like a few innocent civilians taking a ride on the waters of the Grandline. Chopper and Franky were hidden below deck just because there was no way of hiding their species and size. Ace...well he was another part of the plan.

The marines looked at each other exchanging nods before turning their attention to Sunny. They seemed to be buying the civilian act. "Well, this is a marine base. You can't land."

"Awh, but we just need a little rest on land for a bit, can't we just stay as guests for one day?" asked Nami looking at the men, pouting. The marines had already glued their eyes to Nami taking in her appearance with mouths hanging open. The marine next to the officer nudged him lightly trying to persuade him to agree.

"Hmm, you all seem like a harmless bunch. I'm sure we can let it slide." said the officer rolling his eyes. Nami giggled before giving the men a wink while the others bowed in thanks.

Sunny was brought into port with the small marine ship as its escort. The crew glanced at each other relieved that the first part of the plan was accomplished. It was one thing to gain entrance but now they needed info.

X

The disguised Straw-hats were ushered to officer's lounge right after docking and were now relaxing in two seperate rooms. "We must be in the bedrooms for the upper ranked marines. This room looks pretty nice." said Nami as she studied the area. Both rooms were furnished with a elegantly carved desk and chair with drawers that matched. There were two beds in each room originally but they dragged in another bed just for the guys. Carpeted and an adjoining bathroom decorated with marble, it seemed like a cozy rest stop. "I can't believe they let us in so easily!"

"Well I think we have you to thank for that, Navigator-san," said Robin taking off her white hat, "You're especially good at acting your part."

Nami flashed her a mischievous smile before she sat down on one of the beds. "Well, now we have to be a distraction for the marines, and more importantly the officers." Their door opened and the 3 guys walked in.

"Geez, it's really scary being so far inside their base," said Usopp tugging at his collar.

"Well what now?" asked Sanji.

Zoro brushed the black hair out of his eyes before looking at the clock on the wall above the beds. "Well by now Ace should be off the ship and doing his job. Let's get going. We better do our part." Nami quickly got up and walked to the door.

"Well what are we waiting for?" The crew split up into the different areas of the base making sure to use the excuse of tourist curiosity if they were stopped by anyone.

Nami walked through a deserted hallway looking into each room for a little while before moving on to the next. Each room seemed pretty boring with a few shelves lined with books and a desk piled with papers. Nothing special. In the next room she looked into she found another man which by the look of his uniform he must be ranked as a colonel. "Oh, I'm sorry" she apologized as he looked over at her from his desk, "I was just walking around looking for something to do."

The man stood up from behind his desk and walked over to her with a smile on his face. "Well that's ok pretty lady, you must be one of the people on that ship that came in this morning am I right?" Nami nodded keeping her head down while her eyes peered up at the colonel towering over her. "I don't have enough free time to entertain you even though I would love to but I'm sure I can lead you to the cafeteria area since it seems to be noon so you can get some lunch. What's your name miss?"

"Dominique" she answered while he led her down the halls. Unlike most of the high ranking officers she has met this one seems pretty laid back and not so stern. The two engaged in small talk while Nami discreetly glanced into each room to see if she could spot anything important that could possibly get them to Luffy even if that was Ace's job. She passed a room that had a pile of gold objects sitting on the table but didn't even take a second glance and kept looking for something that this base could have on Kyuushuu island. Still, one room attracted her attention right away and it was covered in maps. She quickly wrapped her arm around his pulling him towards the open door. "What's that over there? Can I see??"

"That's just the cartography room, it's not that interesting." he explained while he let her drag him into the room. She let go of his arm and started studying the maps on the walls of the different islands they had already passed and some she had never seen or heard of yet. Nami slowly made her way around the room while the colonel watched her every move _closely _with a smirk tugging at the sides of his mouth. Nami stopped at one of the older maps posted on the wall. Her eyes widened when she saw Kyuushuu island actually labeled in a mapped segment of the Grandline. Her eyes narrowed.

'Maybe this can be my chance to get a little information myself' she thought turning her head towards the colonel. "Sir, what's this island next to Hitoya? I've never seen it before in the maps we have on our ship."

The man quickly tore his eyes away from the girl's body and walked over to the map to get a better look. He suddenly slammed a hand over the map looking down at her in some sort of a panic. "Oh, that's nothing for you to worry your pretty little head over, Dominique...umm let's just keep going to the cafeteria."

"Awhh, why won't you tell me?"

"I can't it's top secret"

"Please!"

"No!"

"Please!"

"No."

"Plleeaasse..." she begged using her puppy eyes again.

The man sighed. "Well I guess there's no harm done if I just tell you a little but you have to give me something in return," he said moving closer to her trapping her between himself and the wall, "It's an island that witnessed a mass murder with unknown suspects. The only survivor was a little girl and we never got any information out of her because she mysteriously disappeared from her care-takers. It's a place of mystery and some say it's even haunted. It was taken off maps everywhere for the navy to study but now no one will go near it."

Nami cheered herself inwardly knowing that no man could resist her womanly charm but cursed herself for getting cornered like she was now. "Ohh sounds so creepy! I want to go there! Can I?" she said trying to keep up with her character.

"No! That island has been restricted by the government. No one is allowed there." he said crossing his arms, "Besides, that log pose on your wrist will take you 2 months to reset on this island and I'm sure I was told that you people will only be staying for a day."

"Awhh, oh well. Okay! let's go to eat now." she chimed trying to change the subject as quickly as possible. Before she could reach the door he grabbed her arm and spun her around. Nami's eyes widened as he put one arm around her shoulders and another hand over her ass. His face came down closer to hers as she tried to wriggle herself from his hands but he only held on tighter.

"What do you think you're doing said a voice from the door."

The colonel stopped a mere half inch away from Nami's lips and turned to see Sanji standing in the doorway before he loosened his hold on the girl. "Who are you?" he growled realizing that Sanji had spoiled his moment.

"My name is Shawn and that's my wife you have in your arms," he said walking closer to the two. Nami raised a brow but quickly realized what he was trying to do. Playing along she pushed herself out of the man's arms and ran over to hide behind Sanji. "I wouldn't do anything hasty."

"I don't need anything else on my record for hurting civilians but count yourself lucky, girly." he said eyeing Nami. The marine stood up straight before storming out of the room purposefully bumping shoulders with Sanji on the way out. When he had disappeared down the hall Sanji turned around to the slightly shaken girl behind him. "Are you ok my Nami-san?" he asked with his heart-shaped eyes.

"I'm not in the mood for that act!" she snapped before turning away from him, "and don't you dare call me your wife ever again!"

X

"Haha! Nami I saw you in the cafeteria! All the marines were swarming all around you! You did great as a distraction even with the officers!" laughed Usopp from the chair next to the desk. Next thing he knew he was on the floor with a fuming girl over him.

"Be quiet! Listen up, I found out some stuff that I'm sure will be useful but it's not really good news." The whole crew was in the girl's room now and were staring intently at their navigator. "I was talking to a colonel and convinced him to tell me about Kyuushuu island. He told me that there's a rumor that it's haunted but I'm pretty sure he hasn't been to the island himself...and he also told me that it takes 2 months for log pose to reset on this island for Kyuushuu."

Everyone inhaled sharply. "What do we do now..." asked Sanji as he lit one of his cigarettes.

Zoro stepped foward with one of his hands digging around in his pocket. "The officer from the ship that brought us in gave me this already," he said gloomily holding out what looked like an eternal post, "it's for the island right after Kyuushuu. I think he thought I was the captain of our 'vacation' ship."

The door creaked open to the room. All eyes shifted ready for the worst scenario that they were discovered as imposters since some of them had taken off their wigs and make-up. Instead, Ace stepped into the room raising a brow at the attack stances that everyone was in. "Yeahh... well I finally found you guys."

"Damn it! Couldn't you have knocked or something?" yelled Sanji while he let out a huge breath of smoke.

"Oh, sorry and by the way nice hair," he joked as he walked farther into the room, "so anyway I'm sorry to say this but I didn't get any useful information about the island." His face was now serious when he spoke. "The only thing I got was that it's a closed case and all the info about it has been trashed, even the eternal pose to the island. I don't know what to do now." He sat on one of the beds with his head in his hands.

Nami sat next to him and patted his shoulder. Despite they were still only acquaintances through his brother she did feel like it was right to comfort him for Luffy's sake. "We didn't fail yet, I got one of the officers to tell me about the island, but like I said to everyone else: it's not good news. He said that our log pose won't reset for another two months if we want to get to Kyuushuu."

"2 months?..." Everyone closed their eyes in self meditation as the room went silent. That is, everyone except for Sanji who was glaring at Ace with _his_ Nami-swan so close to him.

Suddenly they were startled out of their thoughts at the sound of snoring. All eyes fell on Ace who still had his head in his hands. "Ace?" asked Nami tapping him on the shoulder. Ace slumped over onto the floor, asleep. The room erupted in laughter. The crew began to laugh a laugh they haven't had in past numerous days. Ace may be more mature than Luffy but they resembled each other so much that the Strawhats couldn't help but see the same nature in Ace that their captain had. It seemed like for a second the dark cloud lifted from above the group making them feel a small dose of the carefree nature they missed so much.

"What the hell! Now's no time for that guy to fall asleep!" screamed Sanji putting out his cigarette.

"Lighten up, ero-cook. You know that he has that weird quirk about him what's your deal?" said Zoro nonchalantly as he brushed the hair out of his eyes again.

"What did you call me!"

"Hey guys, not around here!" said Usopp stepping in between them. Zoro crossed his arms looking at Sanji with a victorious expression plastered on his face while Sanji tried to calm himself down and avoid looking at the swordsman's smug expression.

"Yes, I think we should all follow Portgas-san's example and go to sleep ourselves." stated Robin taking off her white slippers.

"Then I guess we should carry this guy to our room?" asked Sanji _lightly_ kicking Ace.

"No, I think it would be better not to risk carrying across the hall to your room so he can just stay in here." said Robin using her powers to make hands sprout out from the floor around the sleeping man's body. The hands passed him across the floor onto the other side of the bed on the farthest side of the room from the door. "Now go already."

"You're just going to let him sleep in here with you!?" protested the cook getting a small nod from the two girls.

The guys walked out of the room with Usopp pushing a grumbling Sanji through the door.

X

A soft tapping came from the other side of the door. "Good morning. Are you two awake already?" asked a voice from the other side. Nami and Robin were already dressed and just fixing a few flaws of Robin's powdered appearance in the mirror. They poked their heads out of the bathroom to look to the door.

"Yes, we are up. We will be out in a few minutes." answered Nami in her sweet voice.

"Ok your group is expected out on the deck soon." The two listened as the footsteps faded away.

"Come on let's go over to the guy's room." said Nami walking out the door. Robin followed picking up her sun hat off the bed on her way out.

The boys' room was simply a mess. The sheets were thrown across the floor half hanging of the bed while the pillows and somehow been separated from their cases and were pushed the foot of the bed. Their clothes were scattered all over the floor and as for the guys, they were sprawled across their different beds still loudly snoring. "I still don't get why they checked up on us and didn't even bother to wake up these guys, " said Nami pushing the clothes in her path to the side while she walked into the room. "HEY! WAKE UP YOU LAZY IDIOTS!"

All three of the sat up in their beds immediately. Zoro reached out to the side of his bed grabbing air as if he were trying to reach his swords that are usually next to him when he sleeps but couldn't find anything solid and instead fell off the side of his bed. Usopp snickered from the bed across from him while the swordsman stood up rubbing his head glaring at Nami. "BAKA! What the hell are you doing in here!" Robin and Usopp turned to Sanji expecting him to come to the defense of Nami's name but instead saw him frowning at the door.

"Where's Ace?" he asked, a barely noticeable amount of annoyance in his voice.

"That's what we came in here to tell you," explained Robin, "last night we came up with a plan to get the log pose to set in order to get it to point to Kyuushuu."

"Ace has a log pose himself and since we have two we have decided to leave Ace's log pose somewhere hidden on this island so he is off scouting the island for a place to leave his," interrupted Nami pointing at the orb on her wrist, " and one of the officer's noticed I have one so we can't leave mine. In two months we will come back here to pick it up as if we were stopping by in order to get back to our island to end our 'vacation'."

"So basically we're just going to sail around or something for 2 months and then come back here?" asked Usopp getting out of bed and buttoning his shirt.

"Exactly" she said, "We have to get away from here for now since we made the mistake of saying that we were only staying for a day."

"But where do we go?" asked Zoro placing the black hair over his own, "if we go to the island that the eternal pose that one of the marines gave me then we might not be able to get back to this one."

"No, we do have a place to go for now, " said Robin, "I found an eternal pose from the last island we we're on. I felt that we might need it."

"That is just way too convenient" sighed Nami.

"You're so amazing Robin-chwan!!" chimed Sanji finally jumping out of his bed. His face was hit by a mass of clothing knocking him to the floor.

"Hurry up and get dressed! Their waiting for us at the port!" yelled Nami walking out the door.

"Hai, Nami-san!"

X

Miraculously, Ace had found a place to leave his log pose deeper in the center of the island where there were numerous trees to cover his movements. He placed the compass inside a small indention on the side of a large tree probably created by some birds awhile ago for nesting. He covered the opening with a rock that fit snuggly in the hole and placed his hand on the side of the tree. His hand lit up slightly before going out leaving a burned hand print on the side of the tree. Carefully taking note of his path towards where Sunny was docked he memorized a few check points around him. The sun was barely rising when he got out of the trees on the south wing of the marine base. Running over to the ship he breathed a sigh of relief when the port was still empty around Sunny. Jumping onto the ship he thought about how well this operation was going. 'It may seem that it's going smoothly,' he thought as he went down into the ship, 'but two months... things can only get worse for you, Luffy.'

**Sooo, yes I did rush this chapter. Sorry for that and for any misunderstandings in the text. Unfortunately, this was one of those chapters with nothing more than a explanation in how they are going to get to Luffy so I wanted to get it over with. Chopper and Franky were just chilling somewhere in the lower levels of Sunny and the marines didn't search the ship so don't worry about them they will be back. Nothing special here but it's ok. Probably noticed that I didn't put anything about Luffy's story but that's because by the next chapter they are going to find him so the next chapter is going to be ridiculously long. On the down side, I'm actually thinking of putting this story on a hiatus (ha right before the actual chaos in the story) but that decision is not for sure. **


	10. An Angel's Fall

Ridiculously long chapter

**Wow, this chapter took fucking forever...now first of all I would like to apologize for the rating change because I'm guessing when I was changing the summary I must have accidentally changed that too somehow. Also I realize that in the last chapter the "X" thing didn't make sense so I will try it again: -X- means change from Luffy's story to the crew's story or visa versa and a regular X means change in time or scene with the same group of people. Haha Cai is a complete mental person that needs help immediately! Yeah, so they find Luffy in this chapter so have fun!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece**

"LOOK! I CAN SEE THE ISLAND!" yelled Usopp back at the rest of the crew.

Zoro straightened the black wig on his head glancing over to the horizon. "It's about time..." Reluctantly, he quietly went down the stairs to stow his three swords away. On his way back up he found everyone grouped on the deck in their individual disguises except for Franky and Chopper who were sitting on the other side of ship keeping themselves entertained by playing some card game. The others were discussing and finalizing the plan of how to stop at the naval island just long enough for Ace to retrieve the log pose that finally had its 2 long months to reset to Kyuushuu.

"We have to make up a story to just stop by and not have to stay the night," said Sanji as he breathed in the last of his cigarette before throwing it in the ocean, "we've already wasted too much time."

"We can ask them for supplies or some food," suggested Usopp.

"That won't get us on the island if we ask that from them," retorted Sanji, "they'll probably just bring it to us on the ship."

"Cook-san is right," stated Robin, "but that does give me an idea." Everybody immediately turned their attention to Robin to see her pointing to Ace. "Our main goal is to get Portgas-san onto the island to retrieve the Log Pose. So using the interesting boat that he brought on board when he first met with us he could get onto the island while we once again distract the marines attention by asking them for supplies, redirecting their attention to the pier," she explained, "and because your boat is so small it won't be detected that easily."

"Your talking about his fire-propelled boat?" asked Nami rubbing her chin in thought, "I think that plan will actually work!"

"I'm sure you can keep the flame down so you won't be spotted that easily from shore," said Robin looking at Ace who simply nodded back to her. Nami looked at him curiously as he made his way under deck to get his boat out from the men's quarters before she motioned the rest of the crew to crowd closer together.

"Have you guys noticed that he's been really quiet ever since we left Seidou island?" asked Nami when he was far enough not to hear her.

"Tsh, It's probably because he's worried about Luffy." said Zoro plopping down on the floor next to the rail.

"Do you think that he knows something that he's not telling us?" whispered Usopp.

Chopper and Franky came running over to the group leaving their cards scattered across the deck curious about why everyone was crowded together. "Hey! What are we whispering about over here?!" exclaimed Franky.

"Shh! We're talking about how Ace hasn't said word since Seidou." explained Usopp, "Do you guys think he's hiding something?"

Chopper and Franky shrugged. "I agree with Kenshi-san," said Robin, "he is probably anxious about finding his little brother."

The others nodded in agreement except for Nami. Robin noticed that she seemed lost in thought while she stared blankly at the floor. Before she could say anything the sound of a door slamming and heavy footstep was heard coming from below and the subject was dropped. Ace appeared to them carrying his boat easily with one arm up the stairs before he dropped it into the ocean.

"Ok, I guess your going to start your part of the plan?" asked Usopp not making eye contact with the older man. Ace once again nodded before jumping over the rail.

Nami ran over to the side of the ship. "When you get your log pose just go out into the ocean and wait for us to pick you up when we get out of military waters." He turned to the island with a sigh and propelled himself to the island. Nami took a deep breath and turned to the rest of the crew with her normal stern expression. "What are you two still doing up here?" she yelled pointing at Chopper and Franky, "get out of site now! The rest of you get your faces and personalities down!" The crew scrambled around while Nami tucked a blonde curl behind her ear. "Why did I ask a stupid question like that in the first place?" she whispered.

-X-

"It's been almost three months, my little pet," teased Cai idly playing with his black locks of hair, "and your so called 'nakama' hasn't come for you." Her hand moved down his face running over the bandages wrapped around his eyes and cupped his cheek. Licking her lips she grinned devilishly before she placed her lips over his. Covering his lips with her own her tongue pushed into his mouth taking her time exploring every part inside in depth before wrapping it around his own unresponsive tongue. She twisted her head to the side for easier access while her hand slipped to the back of his head to lace her finger into his hair as her other arm snaked around his body. As she forced her tongue down his throat she moved her hand right below his shoulder blade and slowly bared her fingers over his back.

She smiled when he whimpered into her mouth while she felt the warm blood trickle down her fingers. Pulling away from him she savored the faint taste of iron in her mouth and ripped her fingers out of his back. "I've really taken a liking to the taste of your blood. I'm so glad I changed my mind and actually decided to get my hands dirty with you," she giggled, "and I'm sure you remember this little power of the Toge Toge no Mi (Baroque Works agent Miss Doublefinger)." Stretching out her spiked fingers she dragged the tip of them down his chained arms.

"I think your getting too attached to the boy," commented Gaije who was leaning by the door.

Cai stood up quickly turning to him still licking the red liquid off her now normal fingers. "Hmm, nobody said you had to watch," she interjected, "besides, I'm only playing around with the little cutie."

"Is that why you haven't hurt his face in any other way other than his eyes compared to the rest of his body?" he prodded walking over to her side. Gaije looked down at Luffy's battered form on the floor running his eyes over each of the wounds he had acquired over the months. He was kneeling on the ground as usual being held up by the chains that bonded his wrist together high above his hanging head. Blood dribbled out of his mouth and dripped down to the floor while his whole body shuttered with each breath he worked so hard to take. New injuries ran over those that were barely healed with red sticky rivers that ran down his body and pooled around him. There were even several nails embedded in his skin on his arms and legs mainly focused around his joints rendering his limbs useless to him now. He grimaced at the sight before turning to Cai who had her head tilted to the side with her arms crossed pouting childishly at him.

"That's not true," she protested, "I've played with his mouth a few times." She tapped her lips playfully to him before she turned back to Luffy.

"Tsk, tsk! I think Gaije has a point, Cai. I think you're forgetting why you even captured him in the first place," sneered Doll gliding over to their prisoner from her spot on the opposite side of the door. She abruptly kicked him in the stomach causing him to cough out more blood.

Cai bent down in front of Luffy and took a fistful of his hair pulling his head back to expose his face. With the back of her hand she roughly wiped his chin clean. "I never forgot the reason why I brought this devil here but I like to have fun and there's always more than one way to have fun." She tugged at the bandages around his eyes until she tore through one layer. "Here, I'll show you and tell me what you see." she said tearing the rest of the of the dressings off. The two bent over them looking intently over Cai's head and into Luffy's half open eyes. His dilated pale blue orbs were cast down and completely glazed over in a vacant stare. The bottom rim of his blood shot eyes were gathering the familiar red liquid that would soon spill out of his unfocused gaze and follow the dried path down his cheeks.

"WOW!! I didn't even know his eyes changed color!" squealed Doll in awe, "it looks like he died with his eyes open except for the problem that he's breathing. I guess you finally got to him." Cai smiled and let go of the boy's head allowing it to loll foward again.

"I knew his nakama, or if he still should call them that, wouldn't even bother to come find him. There is no point of his existence in their lives. They're smart and strong on their own and maybe the normal ones might even realize that they don't even need the other Akuma no Mi users on that ship." she declared getting up and walking to the door, "I think it's time that I claim him as my pet... permanently."

-X-

"Well that went well..." said Sanji as he changed in the men's quarter's with the rest of the guys.

Zoro glared at him from the other side of the room while he tied his black bandana around his arm. "What are you talking about?! Your the idiot who leaned over the rail letting your wig fall off into the water when we were already leaving the pier!"

"Hey! don't call me an idiot, marimo! It's your fault! You decided to push the food they gave us over the edge and I ran over to the rail to try to save it!" the cook argued.

Zoro picked up his swords from his locker making sure not to turn his head away from Sanji. "Maybe you shouldn't be so impulsive and actually watch what your doing." Sanji's shoe met with Zoro's sword as the two finally lost their temper. Usopp dove under the wooden hammocks while Franky and Chopper hid in the kotatsu as the two engaged in battle.

"Guys! Stop it already! We already got away from the marines!" cried Copper ducking into the sofa as Sanji flew over him and crashed into the sunken table. "HELP!!"

Zoro had Wado Ichimonji in his grasp watching Sanji get up with a cold look in his eyes. Already suspecting his attack, he raised his sword up in defense while Sanji jumped into the air and brought down his foot targeting the swordsman's head. His foot landed on the side of the sword and was deflected, pushing him to the other side of the room. The two fighters stood on opposite sides of the rooms as the tension rose making the air heavy with anticipation. "This is the most intense battle I've ever seen them in!" yelled Usopp to the other onlookers who themselves were too caught up in their shock to even try to stop the fight. In a flash, the two were in the center of the room with Sanji's foot and Zoro's sword dangerously pushing back and forth for dominance while both shot death looks into each other's eyes.

Quietly, the door opened slowly as Ace walked in gazing gloomily at his reclaimed log pose around his wrist. Without even looking up, Ace shot a fire blast from his finger between the two throwing them away from each other into the walls. Sanji and Zoro both slid down the walls onto the floor but while Zoro seemed to accept the abrupt end to the fight, Sanji became even more outraged. "What the hell was tha..." he began to yell but Ace had already left and shut the door behind him. Fuming even more, the cook ran after him with the others tailing behind all the way onto the deck.

Sanji found Ace next to Nami who was holding his arm out in front of her to look at the log pose on his wrist. "What the hell are you doing?" he roared catching the two off guard, "Get away from my Nami-san!"

"Sanji! What's your problem?" asked Nami letting go of Ace's arm and putting her hands on her hips.

Sanji didn't even acknowledge the navigator but kept his eyes on a very confused Ace. "My problem is that guy!" he said pointing at the older pirate, "I know what's going on here! You guys are getting a closer relationship and now he's just trying to get me angry!"

"What are you talking about?" retorted Nami.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about! You can't hide it from me!" he exclaimed while the other's finally catching up with Sanji up on the deck.

"Cook-san, your accusation doesn't make sense. Why would you think that they are in a relationship," asked Robin from the upper balcony.

Sanji looked up at the archeologist with his one exposed eye. "I've seen them talking to each other in private whispering to each other and standing really close together."

"Sanji, I'm not even yours why are you getting all worked up?" protested Nami, "and Ace and I aren't like that!"

"It doesn't matter! I want him off the ship now!"

"First of all, you have no right to order anyone off this ship, and second, his log pose is the one that we need to get to the island," explained the Navigator, "so he doesn't go!"

"Why are you treating me like this after I saved you from that guy who was about to rape you?!" blurted out Sanji causing the whole deck to fall quiet.

Nami's eyes suddenly began to well up as she balled her hands into fists by her sides. "Why did you tell that to everyone!" she screamed.

"You never said it was a secret."

The others started to murmur to each other quietly with a feeling of disapproval floating through the air. "Nami, why didn't you want us to know?" asked Chopper pushing his way to the front, "we're you friends and you shouldn't have to keep secrets from us."

"Shut up, Chopper! Your not part of this!" she shouted to the young reindeer.

"Hey! Don't yell at him!" said Usopp kneeling in front of Chopper who was already tearing up, "what's wrong with you!"

"Like you're one to talk! _Soge king_!" shot back Sanji making sure to say that last words with obvious sarcasm, "lying to Chopper all the time and keeping your him a secret!"

"Wha..wha..what?" stuttered the confused reindeer.

"There's no need for this fighting, straw-hats!" clamored Franky trying to put himself between Usopp and Sanji.

"Don't even bother trying to get through to them," said Zoro lazily leaning on the rail.

Nami pushed past everyone to get to Zoro who was standing with his arms crossed watching her make her way to him. "Oh! Your such a great captain not even bothering to get everyone else in line." she said.

"Don't tell me how to run things you witch!" replied Zoro baring his teeth at her.

"Don't call my Nami-san a witch!" called out Sanji trying to break away from Robin who came downstairs to try to calm the crew.

Nami turned away from the green-haired swordsman and stomped her foot on the ground repeatedly. "I'm not yours!"

"Stop it already, Sanji! You started this whole argument in the first place. " said Usopp. Just as the sharpshooter finished his comment the whole deck blew up in an uproar as everyone began to curse each other and even throw a few punches while Chopper and Robin tried to break up the fight. Suddenly, flames erupted between each of the crew members and scattered everyone across the wooden floor. The shocked Straw-hats sat back up and looked over at Ace who was standing in the middle of the deck with his whole body on fire. His face was hidden behind the rim of his hat with his head downcast and hands curled into fists by his sides.

"I had no idea how dependent you guys were on my little brother," he whispered. He looked up at them with eyes full of sorrow and anger while he extinguished the flame around him. Ace turned away from them and disappeared to the back of the ship.

-X-

Gaije was carrying him down the hall again following the girls as usual. He looked down at Luffy who was blankly staring at the ceiling. He felt the shuttered breaths travel from the kid's cold body into his arms that were covered in the boy's blood. 'He's losing way too much blood,' he thought studying Luffy's face, 'his skin is so pale.'

_Flashback_

_They walked down into the stone staircase getting farther away from the cold air after their little trip to the surface by the icy ocean._

_"Go ahead and bring him back to his cell." said Cai letting Gaije pass her down the stairs, "and do what you want. I don't care if you help him or hurt him since I had my fun already." _

_Gaije nodded and left the two girls to travel down the dim hall with the younger boy in his arms. His shivering was still violent despite they were out of the cold and his skin was mostly a ghostly white but some places were beginning to turn blue. Gaije's eyes widened as he held Luffy closer to him and began to run down the hall. _

_"Shit, the kid's got hypothermia." he said to himself stopping at the wooden door at the end of the corridor._

_Opening the door, he immediately kneeled on the ground and lay Luffy in front of him. Lighting the lone candle above them he watched the pirate's body shiver while trying to think of what to do. Taking off his black shirt he laid it across Luffy's body and began to rub his own hands together. Gaije got down on one knee and grabbed both of the boy's shaking blue hands and covered them in his warm ones. He felt the shaking steadily subside in a matter of minutes before he did the same for his ears and even his feet. When he was finally done all the blue limbs were back to just being pale white but Luffy was still shivering madly. He looked around and soon realized that the room itself was pretty cold... and the stone floor was freezing. Gaije groaned while he ran his hand through his long black hair and looked down at the kid. _

_"I hate you." he breathed before he picked Luffy up off the ground and sat him on his lap. _

_He carefully wrapped his shirt around the younger one's torso and put one arm around him for support. He leaned on his other arm and let Luffy lean on him to feed off of his body heat._

_When Luffy's shivers began to die down Gaije breathed a sigh of relief and pushed the other boy off of him. He dragged him roughly across the floor by the chain attached to his collar over to the wall dropping him so that his limp head hit the wall. Taking his wrists into the chains he securely locked him into place and stepped back to survey the young captain. Scowling at him he lifted his leg back ready to strike him. In mid stride he stopped his foot from making contact with Luffy's stomach and set his foot down. Gaije kneeled down in front of the boy and took his face into his hand. Staring into his dazed blue eyes, he began to feel that weird sense of sympathy again that he had been getting a lot lately. Gaije quickly shook off the feeling and threw Luffy's head against the wall... hard. He blew out the candle and walked over to the door. Before he closed the door behind him he slightly turned his head back to look into the black room._

_"Damn you"_

_End Flashback_

Gaije looked at the backs of the two people in front of him on the stairs and then back down at Luffy. Quickly, he tried to think of a reason for Cai to let him treat the five giant holed in his back. "He's going to pass out." he said.

Cai immediately stopped and spun on her heel. She walked over to Gaije and abrasively turned Luffy's face to her. Running her hands over his forehead and cheeks her face contorted in a look of displeasure. "Damn it, he's freezing. You're right," she said through her teeth, "Go stop the blood loss now and bring Doll with you. I don't want him to be unconscious." Gaije turned away from Cai at the bottom of the stairs and walked down another hall while Doll skipped happily behind him.

X

Doll supported Luffy on the table while Gaije worked on his back. They were in another stone room with another wooden door but there were way more lights and it was five times the size of his prison. It had shelves of medical books and counters and cabinets filled with bandages and ointments and all sorts of medical supplies. Luffy came to the conclusion that it was the doctor's room, instead of that white room that was more like a lab, and Gaije was ironically the doctor. He had been in this room a few times already during the months and it used to be his favorite mainly because it was the room that they actually treated some of his wounds rather than make them yet, lately he just didn't care anymore if they healed him or hurt him. He was no longer conscious to the world around him or the time he had spent here but had retreated to the back of his mind to hide from the pain. Whenever the three of his captors would visit him now he would barely be there in his mind and hear a only few of the words they spoke to him. Nonetheless, he still couldn't block out every time they tortured him but he didn't bother to fight back anymore. As for Cai kissing him, he could care less about that too. She was probably trying to toy with his emotions but his heart had already gone numb a long time ago. He had completely given up now knowing that the people he cared so much about didn't even care that he was gone. His 'nakama'... Why should he care if no one else did? Cai told him it has been almost three months and there wasn't a single soul passing by the island. Even if they did happen to decide to rescue him, who's to say that they just want to use him? It was a mistake to trust anyone so much but he thought that they would always be there with him. So after all they've been through together they betrayed him in the end. His body was dying, his mind was lost, and his spirit was gone. He wanted to die.

"Stop" said Gaije swatting Doll's hand away from digging themselves into the hole's in Luffy's back.

Doll retrieved her hand and sucked on her fingers childishly. "Why?" she whined adjusting the boy in her arms, "you know how much I like this stuff." She took her fingers out of her mouth showing off the red remnants still present on them.

Gaije rolled his eyes as he wiped off the red liquid on his back with a towel. He felt what seemed to be alcohol being poured onto the injuries that began to sting for awhile before dying down to a dull burn. Luffy closed his eyes and simply slipped away into the confines of his minds in utter isolation.

"So did Cai accidentally hit any vital organs or something." asked Doll in a bored tone.

"No"

Doll sighed while Gaije proceeded to stitch up the deep injuries. "You're all tense. You need to lighten up, baby." she said leaning towards him. Gaije did not hesitate to pause in the middle of the work to return the kiss before he pushed her away lightly. Doll pushed up her glasses giggling at the sight of his rarely seen half smile. "Oh, looks like the tough guy does have a weakness!" she teased while he turned back to the stitches. "and a weakness for this kid."

Gaije flinched but still went on and finished up the last one before he looked up at her. Raising a brow he urged her to elaborate. "Your softer on him than any of those other Akuma no Mi twerps we ran into," she explained in an oddly serious tone, "what's wrong with you?"

"Cai is making a mistake," he said laying Luffy on his stomach on the table, "her plan of what she's going to do to him is wrong."

"What are you talking about?"

Gaije looked away from her piercing gaze for awhile trying to decide if he could trust her with his theory. In all truth and honesty, Doll was the only person he could speak more that 10 words in a sentence and the only person he ever talked to comfortably. He sighed and turned his eyes to her. "Look, I don't know how you feel about this but lately I've been feeling this unusual feeling that this kid doesn't deserve any of this," he said, "he's not like the other Akuma no Mi users."

Doll cocked her head to the side staring at him in shock. "How could you say that?" she asked quietly, "all of them are the same heartless killers. Of course he deserves this! Besides, we're just tagging along with Cai for the fun of it, remember?"

Gaije nodded looking down at Luffy, noticing for the first time he was unconscious. "Listen, you know how much I love to indulge in my guilty pleasure of satisfying my sadistic needs but no matter how much I want to rip his heart out I just can't seem to do it," he growled punching down onto the table.

Doll came from behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. Grabbing onto her wrists, he turned around and placed her arms around his neck. "You know I love you even if you begin to change but Cai is going to get her way with that boy no matter what," whispered Doll, "she will kill you on the spot if you betray her so just sit back and please just don't do anything stupid, for me."

Gaije nodded pulling her into a tight embrace. "Well he's unconscious again so I don't think that Cai can do whatever she wanted to do with him today."

-X-

"ninety-three days without him..." Snow fell steadily from the sky onto her jacket and covered the deck of the Thousand Sunny under a thick white sheet. It seemed that they were in the territory of another winter island but they had been sailing for four days already and they still hadn't found the island. Her head began to feel a little heavy as the snow piled onto Luffy's straw-hat that Ace had given back to her a few days after the fight. Taking it off, she lightly shook off the snow and placed it back on her head. Nami listened to the snow crunch under her feet while she walked over to Ace who was staring down at his log pose. He also had a coat on that he borrowed from the crew but still had on his shorts despite the cold claiming that he could keep himself warm with his power. She rubbed her arms trying to warm them while the snow fell steadily between them. "Still on track?"

The whitebeard pirate looked at her for awhile before he gave her a half-smile and pointed out to sea. She looked into the distance past the millions of white flurries falling from the gray clouds above and saw a pure white lump in the distance. Immediately she ran down to the front of the ship to try to get a better look at the island. Squinting through the flakes she saw the snow covered island they were heading for with a huge mountain jutting out from the center. Her eyes widened with excitement.

"GUYS! GET OUT HERE!" yelled Nami still staring at the island.

Zoro jumped down from the weight room from above her while Chopper's hooves could be heard tapping on the boards from the back of the ship out of the doctor's room. The rest of the crew emerged from the ship wearing heavy coats shivering slightly in the cold.

"What is it Nami?" asked Chopper curiously shaking the snow out of his fur.

Nami pointed out into the ocean. "There it is!"

Everyone followed her finger out towards the island. "Yes! We made it!" cheered Usopp picking up Chopper and throwing him up in the air. Gigantic streams of tears dramatically fell down Franky's face while he tried to wipe them away. "Are you crying, Franky?"

"No! Of coarse not." cried the cyborg turning away from them.

Robin sighed with relief walking back into the ship while Zoro and Sanji stared out into the ocean. The two of them haven't said a word to each other lately, or anyone for that matter. After the huge brawl that included everyone on the ship, everyone was a little antsy with each other and relationships on Sunny have turned for the worst. Nami turned around and gave both of them an a little shrug before walking past them. She glanced at the other three who were celebrating with each other. ' At least those three are still normal.'

"It will be a little less than an hour before we actually dock," she stated, "be ready."

Walking across the deck back to the balcony she decided that she would go over a few things with Ace before they landed. When she looked up at Ace she saw him with his arms crossed and legs apart staring intently at the island. Nami could see the fire of determination burning in his eyes. Her eyes widened in sudden realization knowing that she had seen this look before. Ace had the same expression that Luffy had on top of roof of the bridge at Enies Lobby, that same look that meant he would stop at nothing to get back what was his.

-X-

It had taken Luffy four days to wake up out of unconsciousness due to blood loss and Cai wasn't one to waste time so she told them to retrieve him the moment he had woken up. They layed him in the center of the chamber that they had brought Luffy to the first day they were introduced to him but Cai had made a minor adjustment. In the center of the room there were two thick metal poles running from the ceiling and into the floor on either side of where they were ordered to lay Luffy. All of the torches burned wildly on the sides of the room lighting their faces with their orange glow. Doll tied the black cloth around Luffy's eyes while Gaije stood by her putting on a pair of leather gloves. Doll looked up at his uncomfortable expression worriedly. Cai had told him that she had a special job for him before she had left the room a minute ago and that the gloves had something to do with it. Gaije looked back at her automatically erasing all emotion from his face and gave her a reassuring nod.

The door opened and Cai came waltzing in with her hands behind her back. "Are his eyes are covered? I want this to be a surprise." she said walking closer to the group. Stopping in front of Gaije, she took out her right hand from behind her and revealed a coil of metal.

Gaije looked closer at the metal noting the spikes protruding from it. "Is that.."

"Correct!" Cai interrupted, "I want you to tie him up with this. It will be a better restraint than those noisy chains."

He took the coil without hesitation and turned to Luffy. Now he understood why she had given him the leather gloves in the first place. Gaije lifted one of Luffy's limp arms and positioned him on his knees. Pulling out the wire he began to wrap it around Luffy's arm from his elbow down to his wrist before he tied it to one of the metal poles. He felt the boy's arm tense up and watched the sharp spikes penetrate into his skin and draw up blood. Surprisingly, he wasn't feeling any sort of commiseration for the younger's sake and gingerly kept coiling the barbed wire around his other arm. Despite how much the spikes were slicing into his skin Luffy hardly made a sound. He only sat there on his knees taking the pain as it was dealt to him. When Gaije was finished Luffy's arms were held up on either side of his body with the wire curled around both and stretched over to the two poles. With his sudden remergeance of his cruel attitude he had also wrapped two more coils around both poles and stretched them to the boy's neck interlacing them with the collar before they criss crossed over his torso and stretched back to the metal rods. Stepping back he admired his work, watching Luffy's blood run down to the floor with immense satisfaction. Doll latched onto his arm with a relieved smile plastered on her face.

"Thank you, Gaije" said Cai.

Gaije grunted in reply. "What do you want us to do now?" asked Doll.

"You guys can leave already" she replied smiling at them. The two nodded and left immediately understanding what she was planning to do.

Cai stood over Luffy in silence. The only thing heard was the crackling of the flames lining the room and the sound of their breathing.

"I told you that you weren't wanted in this world but you just couldn't accept that," she spat circling around him, "but now you know I'm right by example of your nakama." She bent down in front of him and ran the back of her hand across his cheek smearing the blood on his face. "You feel you have no purpose to live anymore because the people you loved have abandoned you in the end, but don't worry, you have much worth to me." Stealing another quick kiss from him she stood up and walked behind him. She took out another piece of cloth that she had hidden behind her in her left hand and tied it around his head so that it ran into his mouth between his teeth gagging him in the process. Walking over to the outer rim of the room she ran her hands on the wall until it hit one of the torches and pulled it out from the holster. "I know you won't resist me anymore so I can finally take that power within you into my hands, but before I awaken that little monster that has lay dormant inside of you for so long I want give you a simple reminder that you are mine now."

Walking towards him again she formed her free hand into an iron rod shaping the end of it into cross and circle fused together perpendicular to the rod. Bending down behind him she placed the end of her transformed hand into the flame of the torch in her hand long enough until it was barely glowing orange from the heat. Cai threw the torch to the side causing it to go out while her normal hand ran down Luffy's back to the cloth of his shorts. She placed her chin on his shoulder, carefully avoiding the barbed wire leading to and around his neck, putting her lips close to his ear. She pulled down his waistband an inch while her smile grew.

"My pet."

-X-

Zoro threw down the anchor into the frigid water while the rest of the crew jumped down onto the snow covered dock. Sanji spotted Nami a little farther down the dock away from the group and walked over putting his hand on her shoulder. Nami turned around and her eyebrow rose when she saw him behind her.

"Nami-san, I want to apologize for what I said on that one day." he said quietly, "It's just that you should know how I feel about you and when I saw you with Ace so much I just got a little defensive."

Nami stared at him surprised at the words that were coming out of his mouth. It was so unlike Sanji to be so calm and straightforward with her but it was better than him always flirting with her. "Sanji, I understand but..." she whispered turning her head to watch the snow fall, "I don't feel the same way for you that you feel for me." He looked at her in shock but at the same time acceptance lingered behind his eyes as if he knew it all along. "I'm in love with someone else."

Sanji looked down at the icy water in defeat while he shoved his hands into his pockets. " I see... can you tell me who?"

Before he could get an answer they both turned back to the ship at the sound of Zoro's boots hitting the wooden panels of the dock. The subject was dropped as the rest of the crew joined them on the pier and they all started their silent walk towards the town through the snow with Ace in the lead. At the edge of the town the whole group stopped and stared at the sight in front of them in awe.

"Wow, this place looks deserted." whispered Usopp looking around at their surroundings.

Everything around them was covered in a sheet of white snow. Some of the buildings had vines covering their walls that were already dead from the intense cold. Most of the other structure had missing chunks of pieces everywhere while others had simply crumbled and were just piles of large rocks buried in the snow. A few of the smaller structures had their roofs caved in and collapsing or missing walls. In the end, all of the buildings were stained black inside and around the places where windows and doors once existed. The group walked through the ghost town listening to the wind whistle through the buildings while they looked around for any sign of life.

"Look around" said Ace walking towards one of the vine covered buildings.

"How are we supposed to find him in this mess?" growled Zoro kicking down a door to peak inside.

"That is he's even here..." muttered Sanji looking into another building.

Nami turned around and looked straight into his eyes. "Don't say that."

"Sorry Nami-san" muttered Sanji turning away from her glare.

"Doctor-san, are you alright" asked Robin turning back to Chopper who had suddenly stopped in the snow. The rest of the crew turned to look at Chopper with his hooves over his blue nose with a look of disgust on his face.

"What's up, Chopper? Do you smell something?" asked Franky walking over to the small reindeer trying to smell the air. " I don't."

Chopper let go of his noise and sniffed the air. Immediately, he covered it again shaking his head vigorously. "Guys, I don't like this place! The air smells like blood and a lot of it!"

Nami's eyes widened while she listened to Chopper's words. Whipping around she ran over to the reindeer and kneeled down in front of him with her hands of the other's shoulders. "Can you tell who's scent it is?!"

Chopper looked back at her confused. "I can try..." He stuck his nose into the air and took a few sniffs closing his eyes to try to focus on the scent. A few seconds later the reindeer's eyes shot open. His face screwed up into an expression of pure shock while he could only utter one word. "Luffy..."

The whole crew including Ace gathered around Chopper while Nami tried to shake him out of his state of shock. "Chopper! Can you lead us to him?" Chopper shook his head to regain his composure before he turned into his walk point form as a regular reindeer. Without warning he jumped over their heads and darted off into the city. The others ran after him trying to keep up as they passed by the ashen buildings to the city border and then into a forest of barren trees. Suddenly they came to a clearing in the forest that had a large building in the middle of it. The building was in the same shape as the ones back in the city but it was fenced off with tall metal bars that circled around it.

"How are we supposed to get over this?" asked Usopp putting his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath. As if on que, both Zoro and Sanji sliced and kicked down a part of the fence in one blow sending the bars crashing to the ground. Usopp sweat dropped while the rest of the crew ran towards the building through the opening. "Can't we rest for one second!" groaned Usopp running after the group.

Chopper turned back to his brain point form while the others came to a stop behind him. "Luffy's scent is coming from in here." The crew was staring at the large wooden door that was in front of them trying to steady their breaths from the run.

Ace looked up above the door and read the words that lined the entrance. "Kyuushuu Detention Facility"

-X-

Cai ran her hand over the damaged skin listening to his ragged breath hitch to her touch. She traced the circled cross on his skin lightly with her finger still leaning on his back. "Perfect" she whispered into his ear before she stood up again. She circled back around in front of him. "Now I'm ready to get what I want." she hissed placing her hand on top of Luffy's head.

Doll barged in through the door knocking Cai out of her concentration. "Cai, you should come out here now!"

"What for!?" asked Cai angrily stomping over to the door.

When the door shut behind them Doll moved closer to Cai cupping her hand around her ear. "Gaije and I heard a crash above us and some people's voices just a minute ago." she whispered. Without giving her time to soak in the information, Doll ran with Cai leading her by the arm down the the twists and turns through the halls and stairs to where Gaije was standing by another flight of stairs.

"They're above us on the ground level" muttered Gaije.

"Can we attack them?" asked Doll hopefully. Cai stood still with her head tilted to the ceiling fixing her hearing on the voices above her. "It's his nakama."

"What?! Are you sure? I thought nobody could get to this island anymore except for you!" exclaimed the other girl in a low voice.

"I'm sure of it. I can hear their voices and I know it's them." she replied calmly.

"Should we kill them?"

Cai paused for a second in deep concentration until a small smile crept onto her face. "No, I want them to find him." The other two looked at her in surprise and then at each other reflecting the same confused look. "You two, don't let them see you." she ordered turning around, "let me finish up with the demon downstairs and then I will deal with them."

-X-

The straw-hats walked into the building cautiously, peering into the long white hallway before them. None of the lights were working so Ace used his Mera mera power to light up the area around them. The neutral colored walls were bare and didn't even have any windows or decoration to brighten up the place. The hall split into four way intersection but the group had decided not to split up not knowing what to expect in this area. Following Ace through the dark corridor on the left they began to see small metal doors lining the walls with the white paint chipping off and a small glass window in the middle.

"The room is really small with only a little bed in the corner and a toilet in the opposite corner," said Ace walking from each door to the next looking into the small window, "all the rooms are pretty much the same but none of them looked like they're been touched in a long time."

"Chopper, you can't smell him out anymore?" asked Zoro looking into the rooms himself.

"No, it's like the scent is coming from here...or above...or all around us." said the miniature reindeer shaking his head negatively.

Across the hall the crew found more of the same exact rooms finding nothing that would give them a clue to where their captain could be. They were now standing solemnly in the intersection debating on weather or not to go down the last hallway. "Guys, this place gives me the creeps." said Usopp lightly latching on to Zoro's arm.

"Well, we just have Chopper's nose to ride on so might as well scout the whole place out," sighed Sanji shrugging slightly. Everyone nodded but still stood in silence waiting for each other to make the first move. Chopper's ear twitched and his head shot up to the people above him.

"Did one of you say something?" he asked.

Everyone looked down at him questioningly. "Nobody said anything, Doctor-san" replied Robin.

"One of you had to say something. I thought I heard someone talking."

The crew looked around in the dark anxiously while Ace's ignited arm lit a circle encompassing all of them in its eerie glow. Nami looked down at the floor and played with the rim of the straw-hat on top of her head nervously when something caught her eye. "Oh my God."

All eyes turned to her while she pointed down at the ground with eyes wide. "Holy crap! Is that blood?!" yelled Zoro pulling up his feet watching the red liquid drop off his boot. Ace stretched his arm down the unchecked hallway revealing a trail or a red-ish brown liquid smeared on the floor. Chopper brought his nose down to substance sniffing it lightly.

"It's Luffy!"

"Finally another clue!" exclaimed Franky.

Usopp groaned. "I have a feeling I'm not gonna like what we're going to find if we follow it."

Suddenly, a blood curdling scream echoed from down the hall and pierced their ears. Everyone was thrown off guard and Ace accidentally let his flame go out, throwing them into complete darkness.

Nami screamed and everyone grabbed the nearest person to them while all that could be heard was the sound of their flailing in the dark.

"Turn it back on! Turn it back on!" cried Usopp frantically tightening his hold on to Zoro's arm.

Ace re-lit his arm again revealing the whole crew again in the hall. He looked around making sure that all seven were still around him. Luckily, they were all still standing around him perfectly fine if not a little shaken.

"What the hell was that!" asked Sanji looking down the hall.

"I don't know, but it came from down that hall and that's also where this bloody trail leads to so I guess we have no choice but to follow the sound." said Ace slowly walking down into the dark passage.

"Well, you heard him! Let's go." ordered Nami following close behind Ace.

"I was afraid you were going to say that" whined Usopp.

They walked close together down the dark corridor watching the walls seem to grow more decrepit as they went on. Finally, by the end of the hall the crew had come face to face with a large wooden door. The cracks on the wall seemed to come from the edges of the door and chipped off some pieces of white plaster that were scattered on the floor. The lock on the door had been broken off the rusted handle and the corroded hinges looked as if they were struggling to hold up the large structure.

"Open it already," urged Franky shoving Ace forward. Ace shot him an annoyed glare reaching for the handle and turned it slowly, taking a deep breath before pushing it open. To their relief, they were only greeted by a flight of stairs that seemed to spiral down below them. The walls and floor were now made of dark brown stone all around them and the ceiling seemed to have a few leaks that dripped down and trickled down the stone. Yet, what surprised the group the most was that the stairs leading down were lighted with a few torches that lined the walls.

"Someone's here" muttered Zoro while they began their steady descent down the stairs.

"What is this place?" asked Chopper to no one in particular.

"I believe it's some sort of hidden or maybe an off-limits underground chamber," answered Robin peering around when they reached the bottom of the stairs. They stood before another fork in their search where the hall split into two different paths: One going straight and the other going to the left.

"Oh great, more halls," breathed Sanji down each one.

"Look, the blood stains lead down here!" exclaimed Chopper pointing down the one going straight. Nami suddenly bolted pass the reindeer down the particular path stained red. She ended up at yet another wooden door and stood before it while the others caught up. She turned the handle and opened it wide only to see a pitch black room.

"I got it," said Ace igniting his arm.

With the light from his flame the whole room was revealed before their eyes. Just like the hallways it was made of stone from top to bottom and it was very small resembling that of a cell. On the wall opposite of them there were chains hanging down to about four feet above the floor and beside that were a pile of bloody bandages that seemed to have been sitting there for quite some time. Nami walked forward into the room staring wide-eyed around at the objects in the room until her foot stepped onto something sticky. Looking down she found herself in a puddle of barely dried blood that clung to her shoes. For some reason, she didn't jump up and out of the puddle but returned her gaze to the chains in front of her. The same red substance was dried on the links and covered the cuffs but as her eyes drifted to the wall she saw blood splattered all across it and trails running down to the ground.

"Shit, don't tell me that this is all his," said Zoro looking around the room. Chopper didn't answer but tilted his head down avoiding everyone's questioning eyes. Despite not getting an answer, they knew Zoro was right. Nami sank down to her knees and started sobbing quietly.

"No Nami, don't cry," said Usopp stepping up behind her, "this room doesn't mean anything."

Nami turned her head to him revealing her reddening wet eyes. "What are you talking about? He's not in here and look at all this blood! " she exclaimed coughing slightly in the suddenly musty room.

"Don't think like that! He's still alive. We just haven't found him yet and none of us are ready to give up!" he chimed.

Nami looked at them through the cloudy air letting a small smile form on her face. 'Yes, I'm not going to give up either,' she thought, 'all nine of us are going to find Luffy no matter what... wait, there's only eight of us including me' She looked at each of her crew members faces thinking she had miscounted, 'Me, Zoro, Robin, Franky, Usopp, Chopper, Sanji, Ace, and...' Nami fell backwards staring at the crew with a horror.

"Nami? What's wrong?" asked Chopper moving a little closer to her. Nami slowly lifted a shaking hand and pointed towards the center group. Everyone followed her finger and looked at each other blankly before back to the girl on the floor.

"Be..be..BEHIND YOU!!" she screamed crawling backwards into the wall while the must in the room thickened.

The crew whipped around and almost fell back in shock. There, stood the same veiled woman dressed in all white who had been standing right behind them the whole time. Her white dress flowed around her in a ghostly manner and her veil screening her face made chills travel up their spines. The must in the room suddenly retracted to her arms and cleared the air between all of them. She lifted her arm and shot a fire blast into the ceiling above them lighting a candle over them.

"You must be the angel" growled Ace setting eyes on the woman for the first time, "I can tell by how you can use both my Mera mera and the Moku Moku power."

The girl slowly lifted one of her pale hands out towards them. "It looks like you have found my hiding place," she whispered, "but you are too late."

Nami's eyes narrowed as she abruptly lunged at the veiled woman out of pure anger. Unfortunately, the woman had dissipated into a fog once again and Nami fell through the cloud. "Go ahead and find him. Your beloved captain is in here somewhere." With that said the cloud flew away from them and disappeared around the corner of the other hall.

The whole group followed the cloud around the corner and down another flight of stairs. At the bottom they had lost sight of the fog and were once again faced with the choice of either going down another staircase or go down the hallway in front of them. Choosing the hallway they only found a few cubicles separated by bars that housed nothing but random items such as rope, chains, wire, nails and a variety of hardware. Not even bothering to ponder why the items were in such a place the crew all turned and ran back from where they came to run down the third staircase.

Getting down off the last step, the groups stopped to catch their breaths. The air had becoming unbearably thin due to how far they were underground and it felt as if their lungs could only breathe in half the oxygen around them. Looking up they stared with annoyance at the 3 different hallways they could take that lay in front of them.

"You've got to be kidding me!" screamed Nami looking extremely distressed.

"Let's go straight. My gut is telling me to go that way." said Ace.

Running down the hall a door could be seen down at the end. Zoro ran ahead of the group drawing his sword. With one slice the wood came down in pieces and the Straw-hats jumped into the room.

X

Nami's POV

The glow of the lights shined into my eyes when we jumped over the broken door into the room. Zoro had suddenly stopped in front of me staring in shock at something in front of him. Ace, Robin, Chopper and Usopp were beside me while Franky stood behind me with the same expression painted on all their faces but I wasn't able to see what they were looking at because all of them had boxed me in. Trying to push my way between Robin and Usopp, I fell out of the group onto the open floor. Slowly getting up, I looked at my friends who didn't even notice my fall but still had their eyes glued forward. I looked around the round room lighted by torches following their gaze to the center of the room and instantly, my heart was crushed.

There in the middle of the room was Luffy. Although I was not able to see his face I could see that all over his body there were open gashes and bruises in his unnatural pale skin. He was sitting on his knees with his head down and his arms above him, stretched out by lengths of barbed wire that coiled around his limbs and reached out to two metal poles on either side of him. More barbed wire crossed over his chest and went around his neck where the collar clung to his skin and the chain attatched and trailed down. In nothing but his black shorts, his skin was vulnerable to the razors that dug into his thin body and bled out an immense amount of blood that dripped down and pooled around his legs. The only good thing that I could see were the oddly restrained shuttering breaths that he let out in the quiet room.

"LUFFY!" I bolted towards him with tears forming in my eyes. Dropping down on my knees in the puddle of blood around his battered body I reached out my hand towards his face but quickly retracted it once I felt how cold his skin was. Taking a deep breath, I moved my hand towards his face and lifted it up to me gently. Thankfully, his face wasn't hurt in any way with cuts or bruises like the rest of his body but a sudden rush of deja vu hit me when I saw the blindfold over his eyes. I also discovered the reason why his breaths were so retrained when I saw that there was also another cloth that was gagging his mouth and wrapped tightly around his head but the most profound detail were the smeared trail of blood running down his colorless cheeks. By now, the rest of the crew were standing behind me gasping at the sight of Luffy's state.

"I think he's unconscious," I said still looking at Luffy.

"At least we found him," said Sanji turning away from the bloody sight before him, "let's get him out of here before that girl shows up. I looked back and saw Robin, Ace and Chopper standing a distance away staring at Luffy with watering eyes when I realized they were trying to keep away from the sea stone collar around Luffy's neck.

"Oh God! Look at his back! It's covered in welts and there are these five holes stitched up..." Usopp said trailing off. I looked up at him noticing that he was staring out to the outer edges of the room we were in. Looking around the room myself I noticed that it was a large circular chamber with torches on the wall with random piles of sand around the edges yet, now the piles of sand were flying in the air and coming together before our eyes. Everybody was now watching the sand crystals join together to form the into the woman once again.

"Cai," hissed Ace stepping forward out of the group in front of me, "what did you do to my brother?!" The girl flinched probably surprised that we even knew her name but still didn't answer to Luffy's furious brother. Turning her body back into sand she traveled through the air and started reforming right between me and Luffy causing all of us to back up into a circle around the two of them. She kneeled down if front of Luffy's body cupping his face in her hand. I could feel my cheeks warming up and it took all my self control to keep myself from attacking her.

"That's something for me to know and you to find out soon," she whispered, "but don't worry, I just had a little fun with this one." Turning her head to me she brought her other hand to her veil and lifted it up just far enough to let me see her mouth that was curled in a devilish smile. Slowly, she turned back to Luffy. Using her other hand she untied the cloth around his mouth and I watched it fall into his blood below. When I looked back up to her my eyes widened in horror as she pressed her lips against his. The anger built up inside of me as I was about to tackle Cai to the ground but suddenly, a fire blast hit her from the side knocking her away from Luffy's body.

"Don't you dare touch him!" yelled Ace. When I looked up at him I saw that fire in his eyes again. "Get Luffy out of here!"

Immediately, I crawled towards Luffy but Zoro pushed me back drawing out his blade again. He sliced the wired that were hold Luffy's body up causing him to fall forward. I watched Zoro drop his sword and catch the younger boy's body in his arms. Turning back to me he placed Luffy into my arms and picked his sword back off the ground. "Keep him safe," he hissed putting his sword into his mouth. Walking towards Cai he drew his other two swords and stood next to Ace.

"I told you to get him out of here!" yelled Ace watching Cai slowly get back up.

I dragged Luffy's body to the farthest edge of the room from where everybody else started to crowd around the woman. "We're not going anywhere until she pays for what she did to Luffy." muttered Sanji.

Cai began to laugh maniacally when she had finally gotten up as she brushed the side of her burnt dress. The group got into battle position while she turned her head in my direction and let her laugh subside. I screamed when she stomped her foot down into the ground and a trail of ice ran straight for me and Luffy. I wanted to move but all I could do was shut my eyes and wait for the ice to hit us. Next thing I knew, I wasn't frozen but felt a warm glow on my face. When I opened , Ace was in front of us shooting a fire blast down at the ground stopping the ice in its tracks.

"Ocho fleur flip!" said Robin crossing her arms over her chest. I watched a pair of arms pushed Cai over and flipped her on her back onto another pair of arms that grasped her shoulders. More latched onto her legs and started to bend her body backwards. "Clutch!" Before she could finish her off, Cai turned her body back into smoke and drifted out of Robin's arms.

Zoro ran towards her and blades collided when Zoro's three swords ran into her two arms that had turned into blades themselves. Pushing apart, Zoro charged at her again but Cai fired a blast of sand in his direction. Zoro crossed his swords in front of his face in defense but the small crystals shot through and into his eyes. While Zoro struggled to wipe the sand out of his eyes she threw up her hands and shot ice beams out of her palms and froze his feet to floor. When she finished restraining Zoro a large chain wrapped around Cai's body that shot out from Franky's arm. The cyborg began to pull her towards her but Cai's body began to ignite into a flame that traveled down the chain and towards Franky's body. In sudden alarm, Franky retracted his arm from around her body yet, the blast still hit its target sending Franky back into the wall with his arm slightly burned. Chopper changed into a regular reindeer and started to gallop towards the girl from one side while Sanji leaped for her on the other. When Chopper came only inches away from hitting her body she grabbed onto his antlers and began to spin him around her. I watched in shock while she let him go, he was thrown into the air and collided into Sanji who was coming down onto them and both fell together in a heap on the outside of the circle. I wanted to help but I couldn't leave Luffy alone so I could only watch helplessly as my friends were defeated.

When she turned back around her face was hit by an explosion from one of Usopp's explosive stars. The cloth of her veil began to burn up as she ripped it off before it burned her face. Usopp pulled out another star and cocked it in his slingshot ready to fire.

"I'm growing tired of this," she sighed throwing down the burning cloth to the floor.

I looked at her face in complete awe while I took in her features. Cai had flawless pale skin and pure black hair that framed her face perfectly. Her light pink lips was curled into a small smile but it was mainly her eyes that caught my attention...well if there were any eyes to look at. I stared into the empty sockets that once held her eyes and found myself filled with a feeling of fear and despair as I looked into the black abyss. I held Luffy's body closer to mine ignoring the pain of the barbed wire around his body press into mine.

"...but don't worry, you will see again and we can finish our game later!" she said sweetly.

Suddenly, the room went black as all the torches were blown out by a sudden gust of wind.

"She's gone."

"Damn it! How the hell could I be so stupid and let her get me like that?" yelled Zoro blinking out the last traces of sand in his eyes while sheathing his three swords.

Sanji shoved Chopper off of him and stood up brushing himself off. "We all messed up but it's not like we knew how powerful she was."

Ace once again lit the room with his own flame as he walked towards the others and checked if they had been hurt. While he helped them stand up I looked down at Luffy again. I wiped the trail of blood running down out of his mouth while I scanned over his body. This close to him, I noticed the large screws that were embedded into his joints on his arms and legs and ran my fingers lightly over them. To my surprise, I saw a droplet of water fall onto his chest and realized that I was crying over him. Seeing him like this, so weak and vulnerable, tore me apart inside. The thought that I could have lost him made my heart tighten but the thought that I could even let this happen to him was what put the thorn in my heart. He had sacrificed so much to keep all of us safe with him and this is how we pay him back.

The others had already gathered around us and Ace had gotten down on his knees looking down at Luffy with soft eyes. He stretched out his arms and I knew what he was asking for even though part of me wasn't ready to let him go. Reluctantly, I let Ace take Luffy out of my arms and into his own. I hastily wiped the tears out of my eyes before I looked back up. His blood had already soaked onto my arms and into my clothes and his breathing had gotten quicker since we first found him. Ace visibly weakened when he got so close to Luffy and the collar but nevertheless, he stood up with his little brother wrapped protectively in his arms. Ace motioned me to stand up while he made his way towards the exit. I looked around at the others who were looking down at the ground while they followed behind Ace and Luffy. They all seemed disappointed in themselves but I wouldn't blame them. Even though we had Luffy back it still seemed like we all failed.

**Wow, I'm such a freaking psycho for writing this but just taking you guys on a mature walk through the confines of my mind. So this was pretty long and pretty much around 3x as long as chapter 7 give or take but I got the job done. As usual, I would like to say sorry if some things weren't clear and sorry if I made any grammatical/spelling mistakes but I'm only human. Now the places where I got lazy are probably evident but sometimes I don't feel like writing a complicated long sentences. It was actually fun when I wrote this because I was actually scaring myself when I was imagining the scenes in my head especially when Cai was standing behind them and I felt like someone was standing looming over my shoulder the whole time. Now right now, it will probably be hard to see the main theme of the entire story but there is a mini message that has been present in every chapter and in almost all the characters. If you know what it is, Damn your good, but if you don't just think about the strange details in the story and focuses.**


	11. Losing Sight

-1**Rawr!! I just want to let everyone know that if you think you got this all figured out, it's not going to be your cliché love story. Just a reminder, when I first started to write this it was meant to reflect a piece of my life. Now, I'm not saying that I was on a ship searching for someone across the ocean but that each character is going to mirror a real person's feelings in real life. For example, Luffy went through some hardcore shit in the past chapters but that doesn't mean that the real person got tortured almost to death but he did get hurt severely in another way. Cai is not a real person with amazing abilities but she does have a destructive nature and manipulative mind - those sexual advances to Luffy weren't for nothing, keep that in mind- . Don't worry about Luffy, I would never leave him to wallow in despair forever. He won't go through much physical pain but unfortunately, he will have some emotional issues for now. NO HE WILL NOT BECOME PERMANENTLY EMO. He will be kind of be emotional and dark in these upcoming chapters but bear with it if you're not into that stuff. I'm trying to write this story realistically meaning that seeing what kind of crap he just went through there will be psychological effects like in the real world. I would also like to say that I'm not trying to be an emotional bitch crying to all of you about life because I'm not asking for pity. Finally, I would also like to remind people that you shouldn't read these chapters separately as if the others didn't exist because they will intertwine events a lot and you might get confused if you do read chapters like that especially in the distant future. Now, enough about the background scene, let's get back to the stage.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece**

Snow barreled down on the island from the ever darkening sky, wind drew up in a furious breath across the white landscape, waves roared through the enraged ocean bombarding the coast in relentless siege. The gentle snowfall that sprinkled over the land only moments ago was no more but a blissful memory that had long ago dispelled into a nightmare under the impeding nightfall. Mother nature was growing restless with each passing minute and felt no remorse for those caught in her rage.

An unfortunate few desperately ran through the deep snow towards the sound of the crashing waves. The Straw-hat crew sprinted through the blizzard in the city where the buildings anxiously watched them pass as they loomed from overhead. Looking behind them they could see the forest shrink in the distance. The violent wind shook the trees as their limbs appeared to wave to them in silent farewell.

Further on, the young pirates soon resorted to clinging to each other slowly tiring in the harsh weather as they trudged through the snow. Some of them collapsed in exhaustion while the others dragged them on in pursuit to where only a few paces in front of them they could barely see the Whitebeard pirate through the heavy white curtain that fell between them. Nami suddenly appeared next to Ace looking worriedly at the bundle in his arms. She watched the boy shiver in his older brother's protective hold focusing on his mouth for the small puffs of smoke as he breathed. Luffy seemed to look worse since they had escaped the underground chamber. His complextion had grown paler and his lacerated body was still bedeviled with the vindicative hold of the echinate wire further tearing through his skin. Her weary gaze moved down to the white surface below, stained with crimson droplets leaving a lurid trail in their wake while they steadily moved forward.

"Too much blood..."

Turning her focus back to the rest of the crew she could see Usopp in a fit of over exaggerated shivers now sprawled on Chopper's back who had transformed into his normal reindeer form again. On either side of the reindeer was Robin and Franky grasping onto his thick fur for guidance with their free arms raised to block the heavy snow to no avail. Behind them, she could barely make out the silhouettes of Zoro and Sanji, each walking in isolation from the others. It was clearly evident that the two were still on faulty terms with each other and didn't even bother to hide their annoyance and hatred still present upon their faces. Despite this dolorous vignette she could still see the expressions of determination that each member held even in their onerous situation. Nevertheless, it could be easily seen that they were reaching their limit succumb to effeteness hold for Chopper who was unsurprisingly accustumed to such weather.

The young girl had already fallen behind her previous companion who himself was beginning to falter in his step every so often. Their pace had already steadily declined to a crawl by the time they were a little more than half way through the frozen city. Unlike the rest of the crew, she did not have the same confidence that kept everyone else going. Her whole body was already partially numb from the cold as her thick coat had failed to serve as any sanctuary of warmth to her. The icy flakes endlessy pelted her face and covered her fiery colored hair under a thin white sheet as the string of the worn straw hat pulled against her neck in the wind.

Yet, on the inside she had grown oblivious to the misery that had forsaken her body. Her thoughts were now focused on the young boy who was equally, if not more, as she was. The slow journey back to the shore had given her ample time to reflect over the multitude of mixed emotions that had been swimming in her thoughts. Her mind could care less about her own physical being but rather on his being, his pain, his survival. Doubts of loss and death had already began to rise in her mind since their departure from the hell hole they had just recently rescued him from. The state in which they found him in left her in utter melancholy. The sight of his weakened and vulnerable body detered her own strength, and the vigor that she had once held during their search for the boy was all but gone by now. Luffy had always been her strength... his nakama's strength but now he looked almost at the brink of death. She could only imagine what could have happened to him... what was done to him... how he was tortured. The girl shook her head in defiance of the images that were beginning to cross her mind. The snowflakes flew off her hair in a fine powder shimmering in a cloud around her head before they were carried into the wind.

She peered up at the swirling gray mass above her cursing on the inside of its merciless rampage in such a dire situation. With her eyes to the sky she was taken by surprise when she ran into the back of the older man in front of her. Rubbing her chin she looked up to Ace who had his eyes casted down intently on his brother, a distraught look on his face.

"Luffy...Luffy? Please don't..No...NO!!" Ace was vigorously shaking the younger boy now as he fell to his knees. Nami quickly fell into a state of panic falling beside them. The visible signs of life were no longer emitted from between the boy's blue tinged lips. His shivering had ceased, his body completely still.

-X-

Cai quietly kneeled down between the two metal rods in the center of the large chamber and dipped her hand into the puddle of blood before her, lazily running her fingers through the viscid liquid. As she raised her hand the blood ran gracefully down her elegant tips falling with a splash in the pool below. She sighed gloomily pursing her lips into a childish pout as she stood up again.

"What? You miss him already?" laughed Doll from behind her, "You were the one that said you wanted his nakama to find him. Why'd you do that?"

"Of course I miss him! Who am I gonna play with now that he's gone with his ungrateful friends? Those stupid jerks actually decided to come get him even though I was doing them a favor!" she exclaimed letting her body go up in flames, "and now you and Gaije are closer than ever and they took my little cutie away..."

"Ha ha! Does someone suddenly have a crush?" teased Doll, "I bet he's still on the island but I thought you hated him, hmm?"

The flames around Cai were quickly extinguished as she whipped her head around towards the other giggling girl. "Shut the hell up!" she spat quickly silencing the other, " That's not funny...It doesn't matter what that boy means to me but now his nakama is going to suffer right along side him. That's reason why I let those idiots take him back."

"And exactly how do propose to do that?"

A satanic smirk graced Cai's face erasing all previous signs gloom that once beheld it. Doll raised a brow at her words but didn't dare utter a word expecting her to go on in some sort of explanation. Nothing but the sound of the the crackling fire from torches around them filled the room slowly trying Doll's patience. "Well?! Don't leave me hanging!"

"...Absolutely nothing."

Cai turned away from her, the smile never leaving her face as she began to wander around the edges of the room. Doll kept her eyes intently on the other girl knowing that she was intentionally baiting her curiousity just to annoy her. "Tsh, those stupid pirates can probably hurt him way more than I can now," she finally let out bending down to pick up a discarded torch on the floor, " Think about it, Doll. The Akuma no mi users are nothing but putrid monsters using their powers to take whatever they want while preying on the weak and thriving on the high of battle and blood. Those devils are not fit to blessed with those powers from the cursed fruit and have no right to linger in this godforsaken world. Nevertheless, that is what they are mainly know for: power. Now, humans are naturally such selfish creatures who's first priority has always been self gratification. In truth, Akuma no mi users are just humans with wretched powers and repugnant motives, but that's not the point. As I have heard from islands they have passed, when their precious captain begins to heal his crew will expect things to go back to normal like they have always done after every battle. Never had they doubted him to return to his usual personality and never had he failed to do so. You know, sometimes when I was alone with him and before he stopped talking I would randomly ask that boy why he showed no fear or pain but only a carefree and strong persona. He would always respond it was because he didn't want to worry his nakama and that they should never need to know about that side of his personality. Unfortunately, I'm positive that won't happen this time around because I opened that demon's eyes to his own crew's own selfish priority. This time around, he will have a harder time adjusting to them because his doubt lays in them... but they will not be so giving of their time to wait because they are so used to his quick recovery of his strength, his power." Doll watched her ignite the torch in her hand watching the flame slowly grow into a blaze atop the wooded stick. "Like a large fire they see Luffy's power as something that is too strong to ever go out," she explained placing her free hand over the flame, "but a fire, no matter how strong, can always be put out with the right element." Cai smashed her sand coated hand over the flame exploding the wood into tiny splinters across the floor.

The other girl jumped back a little raising her arm to protect herself from the flying pieces. She wiped away a few beads of sweat on her forehead as she hesitantly turned her gaze back to Cai still holding the last intact piece of the wood. Cai turned to her flipping the piece around in the her hand letting her fingers trace every detail on it's surface.

"They will grow tired of waiting for him to get over this chapter of his life thinking that it's over and now in the past, but they are terribly wrong. I have taken his fire and grinded it down to a tiny stub. It is up to them if they can relight it but I doubt they will be able to now. Sympathy can only go on for so long and soon enough they will grow impatient with his dwindled drive and ridicule him to return to normal for their sakes thus we have self gratification. Hard to see now but in the long run I'm sure this is what will happen. They will be the cause of the last severed tie to hope that the boy will have and I will scoop up the remains."

The door of the chamber slammed open causing Doll to jump back into the wall. Gaije stepped in not even bothering to look up at them in any sort of acknowledgement of their presence. His black hair and shoulders were covered in snow and his heavy boots tracked in a wet trail as he closed the door behind him. "Blizzard." he stated flatly turning to lean on the wall. His eyes shifted between the two girls on either side of the room: Cai oddly preoccupied with a tiny piece of wood and Doll looking rather flushed and nervous staring at the other girl. Cai encased the wood in a block of ice examining it a little while longer before dashing it against the wall. The shattered pieces glowed from the flickering fire around them sparkling like gold on the chamber floor.

"It's only a matter of time before I get what I want."

-X-

Zoro quickly pulled up the anchor while Sanji and Usopp opened the sail as the Thousand Sunny began to drift further away from the island. Across the deck, Ace ran towards the sick bay with Nami while Chopper and Robin followed a short distance behind them. Luffy had stopped breathing during their trek through the city but they were barely able to resuscitate him. Ace held the bundle in his arms tightly to his body feeling his brother grow colder with each passing minute, not even caring that it put him in contact with the sea stone. He kicked open the door to the infirmary and gently placed Luffy on to the bed while the other three gathered around their captain.

Nami's eyes frantically scanned her captain's body watching the sheets quickly soak through with his blood as the others stood idly by the bed. "Why are you just standing there?!" yelled Nami taking a towel and wiping the blood off Luffy's face. She glared at the young reindeer who looked like he was hesitating to even go near Luffy.

"How am I supposed to work on him with that collar around his neck?" asked Chopper cautiously approaching the boy's body. "If I get effected then I'll become a normal reindeer again and won't be able to help him."

Looking up at the three she realized that she was the only one in the room at the time who wasn't a devil fruit user. The girl eyed the collar for a moment, taking in the twisted barbed wire coiled around the stone and how it clung tightly to his fragile skin. "As long as you don't touch it you won't get effected. Just avoid it!"

The other three began to work on Luffy's lower body, following the young reindeer's orders as they ran around the small room gathering bandages and bottles off the shelves. Nami tore her gaze away from Luffy's neck and back up to his face. Her eyes rested on the blindfold still wrapped around his head as her hand came up to rest on her own heart.

She bit her lip while she reached for the cloth around his eyes and pulled it carefully off revealing his tightly shut eyes. Nami studied his distressed expression, trying to imagine what he could have going through his mind. He looked like he was in pain...or maybe trying to fight something. Suddenly, she felt a hand rest on her shoulder and she was quickly thrust out of the isolation of her own thoughts.

She looked over he shoulder to find Robin standing next to her with a weary smile on her lips. The sound of metal hitting the floor caught her attention as she whipped her head around to the source. Chopper was already carefully pulling out the screws in Luffy's knees that left deep gaping holes in his legs that the reindeer quickly covered with a gauze to stop the bloodshed.

"I don't know how he could be alive after how much blood he's lost!" cried Chopper as he let another screw fall to the ground, "He should already be dead!"

Ace was now rapidly unwinding the barbed wire around Luffy's forearms and chest; his own hands drenched in both his and his brother's blood as the razors slit into his skin through his careless motions. He glared across Luffy's body at the young doctor before he turned his head back to his task gently laying his brother's arm back down on the bed. "Luffy isn't an ordinary person. He would never die so easily."

Chopper nodded nervously to Ace while pulling out the fifth screw that clattered to the floor. Wiping his forehead the young reindeer let out a breath before glancing back at his captain's body. Nami watched as something caught his eye as he slowly moved to stand next to Luffy's hip. The doctor bent over as he lightly pushed the boy somewhat on his side, his eyes with curiosity written all over them.

"Navigator-san!" exclaimed Robin in a hushed tone. Nami looked back to the older woman who was looking down at Luffy with a mixed expression of fear and confusion rarely seen on the archeologist's face. The girl followed her eyes back to Luffy's face half-expecting to see the young captain awake. Instead she saw an all too familiar sight.

Nami's shrill scream rang through the whole ship as she backed away from the bed tripping over Chopper's chair and landing on top of the cluttered desk. Papers fluttered down to the floor while the other three stood dumbstruck staring at Luffy slowly moving closer to his head.

"What the hell happened!" yelled Zoro running into the room followed by both Sanji and Usopp.

"Get out of here!" exclaimed Chopper shoving everyone away from Luffy, "Let me take a look." The doctor turned into his human form and placed his hand softly on Luffy's forehead. Grimacing a bit, he used his thumb to pull up the boy's eye-lid to see the blood pumping out from the back of his eye in a steady flow covering the orb in a film of red before spilling out onto his face. Unfortunately, Luffy's eyes happened to be rolled back exposing the systems of red blood vessels running across his eye and nothing else that could help the reindeer give a confident diagnosis.

The crew watched as he visibly grew more confused and worried looking down into their captain's eyes. Chopper turned to the others crowded around the bed staring at each member individually before he grabbed Zoro's and Ace's arms and whispered something in their ears. Both of them slowly nodded before turning back to Luffy watching Chopper as he looked at the rest of the crew. "I want everyone out while these two will stay and help me with Luffy!" he ordered nodding at the Zoro and Ace.

"What!? Why can't we stay?" Nami practically screamed with eyes wide while Chopper nudged her towards the door.

"It's umm… too crowded in here and…and, I need more room to work," stated Copper pushing her and the rest of the crew out the door, "Ace is his brother...and well, there are some privacy measures that need to be taken right now..." Nami tried to fight the reindeer but was no match for him in the form that he was presently in. Behind him she could see Zoro taking a small sheet and laying it over Luffy's mid-section covering him from his waist to just above his knees while Ace slowly reached under it. The last thing she saw was Ace pulling off his brother's black shorts before the door was slammed in her face.

X

Nami absently rubbed the towel across Luffy's cheeks while staring listlessly down at his face. She soon became absorbed in her thoughts as the room seemed to disappear only leaving the two of them together in her mind. Her other hand came up to caress his face, trying to ignore the icy touch of his skin, and closed her eyes. It was so odd to feel no warmth coming from his body that was usually so full of energy and spirit, but now, the cold sensation made it almost seem like he was already dead.

She let her hand run down his face and across his chest where it settled over his heart. She could feel his weak heartbeats come up and into her arm just barely noticeable through his labored breaths that triggered a sense of relief inside of her. It had already been almost a week since they had left the frigid island that their captain had been imprisoned in and Luffy had not shown any signs of waking up. Chopper had concluded that his body had unconsciously shut down to aid with the healing process and, in effect, caused him to fall into coma. With the amount of drugs they had found in the boy's body it wasn't surprising that the brain had finally taken a break. The doctor could not predict when Luffy would wake up or if he would ever…in the end, all they could do was wait.

Nami opened her eyes and looked down at her hand now stained red and then back to the boy laying before her.

It was happening again. Her heart was crying out again but stronger than it ever had before and yet, she couldn't understand why. She had this feeling the whole time he was gone but now she had him right in front of her… so why was she feeling so empty inside? Why wasn't she jumping for joy now that she had him back? Why was she so sad and hurt? The scornful voice pounded the questions continuously into her conscious with no offer of an answer to quell her aching heart. It was crazy that just a few months ago she was hardly thinking about love let alone falling for her idiot captain. Yet, such a little time had brought her more than she thought she could handle all because that idiot had to go get himself into so much shit and scare the living hell out of all his crew. Even with the stories all his wounds told nobody could truly imagine what Luffy had endured those months. Just looking at him now, he still looked so hurt and weak that she couldn't even keep herself from turning away to avoid seeing him in such a way. The bandages all over his body were still blotched with red especially the ones that were wrapped thickly over his eyes. Stitches ran across his pale skin and that fucking collar was still fitted perfectly around his slender neck. The damn thing cannot be broken by force and Usopp was busily trying to make a key that would unlock the stone but still came up unsuccessful.

Nami wanted to blame someone for the way she was feeling so she put it on the only person that didn't deserve it. After all, Luffy was supposed to be the strongest one of their entire crew that would protect them no matter what. She never guessed that she would witness the event in which he would need to be rescued but it was only his own carelessness that started this whole charade…right? It was his fault for not being awake when Cai had appeared on their ship, his fault for not escaping from the island himself, his fault for being tortured all that time, his fault for almost dying on his crew, on his brother…on her. Nami knew that her logic was completely off but she wanted to be so angry at the unconscious boy before her. She was angry because she wanted to hate him for all this pain that they were both going through.

["Please wake up, Luffy"]

Her fingers clenched at the sheets threatening to tear them apart before she let out a sigh and let her head drop onto the bed.

["Please don't leave me alone anymore,"]

No, she didn't hate him. She hated that she loved him.

["I love you"]

Nami slid her hand across the sheets to intertwine her fingers in his wiping her eyes with the other.

"When did I start crying?"

"I would say about when you started to take out your anger on those poor innocent sheets."

Nami whipped her head around to find Ace leaning on the door with an amused smile plastered on his face. Why the hell did he always end up being there when she would make a fool out of herself? Jerk.

"Woah, it's not like I'm laughing at you!" exclaimed Ace holding his hands up in defense to her piercing glare, " I just came in here to check on Luffy and you just happened to be having one of your…uhh, things…"

Nami suddenly stood, her left hand still interlocked with Luffy's. Her other hand curled into a fist but soon loosened up as she looked to the ground in embarrassment. Letting out a sigh she plopped back down in the chair looking back to Luffy.

"I'm just worried about him, you know? What if he doesn't wake up?"

"I thought you would have more faith in him than that."

She glanced over at him and back to the floor in shame while his words sunk in. "I don't know what faith is anymore," she whispered gently stroking Luffy's hand with her fingers, "how can we believe in anything with what happened to him. He didn't deserve this."

"Nobody ever said that life was fair but you can't go on feeling sorry for yourself." he responded walking up to Luffy's bedside, " besides, my brother always seems to have a happy ending to every story he walks into."

The two laughed half-heartedly for awhile before the room fell silent again. The room stayed quiet for a few minutes while Nami began to idly play with the hand in hers tracing the lines that ran through his palm and giving it a light squeeze every so often. Suddenly she felt her own hand being squeezed as a small moan broke the silence. The two visitors glanced over at each other before returning their attention to the boy in the bed in anticipation. Looking over at Luffy's face Nami saw him slightly rocking his head side to side whispering incoherent mumbles through his lips.

"…Luffy?" asked Ace leaning over the bed.

"…hnn" he responded moving to sit up.

Luffy was still trying to shake the clouded feeling out of his mind while he heard some voices around him. The only word he heard was his own name as he unconsciously responded to it. He could feel the bandages wrapped around his eyes explaining why he still couldn't see a thing. Feeling the surprisingly soft surface he was laying on he had no idea where he was anymore but he didn't really care anyway. Slowly, he attempted to sit up but he was blocked by a pair of warm hands that were pushing him back down.

"No, don't move Luffy. Stay down!" exclaimed Nami a little to harshly out of her own excitement.

Luffy processed the voice he heard while still trying to fight the force pushing against him. "Who…" he whispered.

Nami tilted her head to the side amazed that he even asked that question. " Don't you recognize my voice? It's me. Nami."

A slight pause followed before she and Ace were knocked backward by an unexpected force and slid away from the bed on the floor. Shaking off the confusion of the unknown pressure that hit her, Nami looked back up at the bed to see Luffy steadily trying to sit up again. As he got to an upright position he curled into himself coughing harshly with fresh blood dripping out of his mouth. Nami quickly stood up running back over to the boy.

"No!" commanded Luffy stopping the girl in her tracks, "Stay away from me."

**+ Anonymous review +**

**Okay, so obviously I rushed the ending to this chapter because I wanted to throw the rest of it out there already and out of the way. Yeah this chapter was mainly focused around Nami but, seriously, her feelings need to be accentuated already. I know I said it would be longer and I know that it was kind of drawl but it's a filler chapter basically. Oh my, don't ridicule me for the horrendous effort on this - I know it was unexciting but look at the bright side, Luffy's awake! Anyway please leave a little feedback for me because honestly I'm really rusty on the writing here and I'm even having a little trouble deciding to finish this or not. REVIEW PLEASE!**


	12. Smiles Fade with the Light

**x SMILES FADE WITH THE LIGHT x- another ridiculously long chappy**

**Wow! Thank you for all the reviews! I know I fail at updating quickly, especially since it's been a little over 5 months, but the reason I started writing again is because I went to my profile recently and read all the reviews from my last update. They were really great and pushed me to write this second extremely long chapter with the help of a sudden burst of inspiration and stuff like that. The length is me saying sorry for the long break.**

**I'm going to tell you guys now: relax you are going to see a little OOC-ness in Luffy in this chapter especially and probably for the next chapter too. He's been through a lot. Like I said last time, he won't stay like that forever because going out of character is scary in itself for me but it's the only way to utilize the plot properly. Luffy has been brainwashed hardcore so he's going to be a little irrational in his thoughts. Bear with it and I'm sorry to all who don't like to see Luffy sad, angsty and actually more intellectual. **

**Another note: make sure to pay attention to the punctuation especially between dialogue -"wow" and thoughts - 'wow'.**

**X-PLEASE READ THE ABOVE BEFORE YOU READ BELOW-X**

" I don't quite understand, Navigator-san. What exactly happened when you two saw him wake up?" asked Robin. Everyone was gathered on the grass far away from the back of the ship where their captain was again in a deep sleep. Nami and Ace had just told the rest of the crew of the event that happened in the infirmary with Luffy that wasn't sitting well with the rest of the group.

" I'm not even sure. It happened so fast. He woke up and when I talked to him some invisible force hit us into the wall away from Luffy...and then after awhile he started to fall over and that's when I came to get everyone." explained Nami. An unsettling wing blew across the deck, silent in thought.

Ace peered over at Nami after she had finished talking. Nobody else knew but him that she had left out the part of Luffy's strange attitude while they were in there alone. 'She has her reasons. She probably doesn't want to worry the rest of his nakama' thought Ace 'Or maybe, she doesn't want to think about how hostile he was to her....'

X

**_Flashback..._**

"No!" commanded Luffy stopping the girl in her tracks, "Stay away from me."

Nami stood where she was completely shocked by Luffy's words. She had never heard him use such a tone of voice with anybody in his crew, not even with his enemies.

"Lu..Luffy?" stuttered Nami. His mouth twitched to the sound of her voice yet he didn't bother to answer her.

Ace slowly stood up and brushed himself off without a sound. His boots pounded against the ground as he made his way over to Luffy passing Nami without even glacing at her and immediately grabbed his brother's shoulders gently supporting his slumping figure. Luffy was startled by the action and reached up to his brother's arms in quick, yet futile retaliation. " Get away."

His movements caused the wounds on his arms to open slightly as the dressings became loose exposing the torn flesh still far from repair. Ace moved his hands to grip Luffy's wrists pushing them away. Luffy bared his teeth at the sudden contact to his cut up wrists and latched on to Ace's own wrist with his left hand while his broken right feebly pulled away, stubbornly trying to fight off the obviously stronger force.

"Don't move around Luffy. You're hurting yourself." whispered Ace pulling Luffy's arms down to his sides. The younger boy cocked his head to the sound of the new voice letting his arms go limp.

"…Ace." he stated rather flatly. Luffy lifted his head trying to sit up once again but keeled over clutching his stomach. Ace quickly moved to support his younger brother's body waiting for him to stabilize. Luffy tensed in Ace's arms not completely comfortable with the close contact but eventually, he wilted, quietly brooding in his own mind. Ace was family and he had no reason to have any suspicions of his motives connecting to himself. He knew that Nami was in the room which probably meant that he was somehow brought out of his torturous prison while he was unconscious for god knows how long. By the steady rocking motion that he felt underneath him, Luffy was aware that he was on the ship meaning that somewhere close by was his crew…his 'nakama'. His anger grew at the thought of his supposed 'nakama' as Cai's words came flooding into his mind. They came for him. So what? They never appreciated him as their leader and only wanted him so that they could use his power and achieve their own dreams. For all he knew they didn't give a shit about him or his well-being and only wanted him back so they can get through the Grandline. Luffy further relaxed into his brother's hold instinctively trying to seek a sense of safety. As far as he was concerned, Ace was the only one on this ship that he could still trust.

Nami watched Ace tend to Luffy wondering why he was so violent to her and not Ace, if not a little indifferent. She could see Luffy was suddenly so welcoming to Ace's actions but she was actually expecting the usual energy and excitement when he was around his nakama that Luffy showed when he woke up after recovering. Instead, it seemed like he didn't even want her near him. When she took a step forward, Luffy quickly turned his head the sound of her heel hitting the floor. His fingers slowly balled into a fist of his left hand grabbing onto the sheets with his teeth slightly barred. Ace looked over at her and shook his head keeping her at bay. Nami paused in shock but stood back and crossed her arms lightly hugging herself while she watched the two brothers in silence. ' Why did he tell me to stay away..'

Luffy pushed Ace away and tried to sit up straight on his own again finally succeeding as he balanced himself on his one hand clutching the edge on the bed. Ace stepped back and shrugged at Nami's questioning gaze before turning back to his brother. "You feeling okay?" he asked. Nami fumed inside with Ace's vague answer while she watched Luffy who looked like he was breathing harder than a few moments ago. "...Luffy?" Luffy breathed out a heavy sigh and let his head hang.

Ace stepped over to hold him up but Nami stood frozen while her eyes dropped with the white sheet that fell from the boy's stomach. His bare torso was completely revealed and there were some bandages that wrapped below Luffy's waist but nothing more further down. The sheet was draped over his hips barely covering the front of his lower body but failed to hide the other side. Nami could feel the blush forming on her face at the sight only now realizing that Luffy was literally naked under those sheets and she was only mere feet away from him. Her cheeks burned at the thought only awhile ago she was sitting next to him while he was unconscious all those hours and she had no idea.

Shifting Luffy in his arms, Ace looked over to Nami who was staring at Luffy with a glazed look in her eyes. Taking in her flustered look he looked back down at Luffy and saw that the sheets had slipped down showing his brother's ass but, thankfully, nothing else. Grabbing the edge on the sheets, Ace pulled them back over the boy and shot an annoyed look at the navigator. Nami blinked a few times before catching Ace's eye and dropping her gaze down to the ground ashamed at the inappropriate thoughts that were running through her head. "What are you just standing there for? Go get the others!" yelled the older pirate.

Nami weakly nodded and bolted out the door away from the ticked off Ace. ' Did I seriously just do that? The hell is wrong with me? Baka, baka , baka!' Nami screamed in her head, ' Why is he even naked!'

"I am not a pervert!" she declared out loud at the top balcony of the deck. She sweatdropped as she looked down at the rest of her nakama who had all frozen in their spots staring up at her.

"Well, that's great...uh good for you, Nami!" exclaimed Usopp awkwardly. Chopper's eyes bulged out of his head at the size of the hole that Nami made as she drilled Usopp down into the deck.

"Usopp! Are you okay!" cried the Chopper looking down to the beaten marksman.

"Agh, the Hell! I'm going to have to fix that now!" grumbled Franky lifting his sunglasses to look at the size of the hole.

Nami rubbed her fist with Franky nursing the large bump on his head in the corner. " Listen up, everyone! Get to the infirmary! Luffy just woke up and we need to get there, now!" she screamed. She waited to hear the shoes of the others pounding on the wood before she ran back to the stern. Taking the root through the dining room she barged into the room almost hitting Ace with the door.

Ace didn't even flinch at her entrance with his attention on holding Luffy up with one arm while he held a cup up to his brother's lips. "C'mon Luffy drink some water." Luffy took a few gulps before he turned his head away and refused to drink anymore.

"Oniisan…" sighed Luffy falling back into his pillow. His face was flushed with tinges of red on his pale cheeks. Sweat covered his body as his breathing came in dry huffs.

"Where's Chopper?" asked Ace. The back door opened with Chopper and Sanji running in first.

"Is he really awake?" Sanji peered over at the bundle of sheets on the bed. The rest of the crew soon filed in pushing towards the bed except for Robin who stood by the door waiting patiently.

" Chopper, he needs to be looked at. Something's wrong with him." stated Ace in a serious tone. The doctor pushed to the front next to the bed and looked down at the boy. His breathing rate had slowed but he was still sweating and shivering. Feeling Luffy's forehead, he pulled pack his arm quickly from the heat.

"He's running another extreme fever. Worse than the one he had the night before he was...um taken." declared Chopper.

Nami looked over worriedly at Luffy then expectantly up at Chopper. "Well, is he going to be okay?"

" Probably, a fever can't hold back Luffy." The reindeer sighed after looking over at the bed again, " You said he woke up, right? Well, looks like he's asleep again."

_**End flashback...**_

"That's crazy! Straw-hat would never hurt his nakama!" cried Franky.

" Portgas-san, did he say anything else to you while you were alone with him?" asked Robin.

Ace quickly shifted his gaze out to the water to avoid eye contact with the others. "No."

Zoro looked over to the whitebeard pirate sensing the uneasiness of the answer. He raised a brow at the obvious lie that fooled everyone else but chose not to bring it out of the older man.

Chopper ran over to them after coming out of the sick bay. " I changed all his bandages and gave him some medicine so... all we can do now is wait again for him to wake up." Everyone sighed at the news with apparent agitation in the air.

X

_Luffy slowly began to wake up to the sound of someone calling his name. _

"Hey! Lu?... _Luffy, wake up…"_

_In no time, he was sitting up blindly reaching out for the person calling him with one hand while the other pulled at the bandages around his eyes. Surprisingly, he had his usual strength back and easily tore the dressings so that it fell in a loose manner around his shoulders. He cringed at the room's bright lights that burned his sensitive eyes that had been prisoner to darkness through the painful past months. Putting up his arm to shade himself, Luffy squinted around to find himself in a soft cozy bed inside Chopper's infirmary with the cheery rays of the sun beaming in through the window of the door. It was strange but he felt normal and completely carefree like he was before he met Cai…as if the past months didn't even happen. Strange…_

_He felt someone put a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Ace smiling at him with relief written all over his face. " Ace!" cheered Luffy flashing him a huge smile. " Ah, that was a good nap..mmm" Luffy pumped his fists in the air while he stretched his body out.  
_

"_It's about time you woke up. Jeez, you could never look after yourself while I was away. Always getting into to trouble as usual." He punched Luffy's shoulder clapping his back as if trying to make sure he was alive " still the same wreckless kid." _

_Luffy swatted his hand away. "Am not!" he crossed his arms pouting childishly, " I know how to take myself." Luffy glanced over at Ace when he didn't reply and saw him strangely staring down at him. "Ace?"_

_ Suddenly, Ace pulled his brother into a gentle embrace._ "_I thought I was going to lose you"_

_Luffy smiled closing his eyes as he rested his chin on Ace's shoulder. He didn't know how to respond to his brother but simply enjoyed his presence for the moment. Ace gently pushed the younger boy away stepping back slightly from the bed. Luffy opened his eyes slightly annoyed from being pushed to see Ace staring at the ceiling._

"_Will you do the same for me?" _

_They were no longer in Chopper's room but in a black space with large metal bars criss-crossing each other between them. The bars towered above them and stretched from side to side disappearing in the darkness separating the two brothers. " Ace! What happened? What's going on? Ace, are you okay? Can you hear me…Ace? Say something! What the hell is this place!?" Luffy grabbed the bars shaking them vigorously while Ace kept staring up ignoring him._

_Laughter began to grow around them as silhouettes of large forms began to appear all around them. "Who the hell are you!?" Luffy looked angrily around at the giants only seeing their eyes that glowed in the black space. _

_The laughter continued while Luffy put his back up to the bars ready to fight as a large smile was illuminated in the dark that loomed over him with delight. "Welcome to Eternal Hell"_

_The forms disappeared and the voices died away leaving a tiny white paper that fell from above him. It floated gracefully down into his hands before a flame grew on the corner and began to burn. A light glowed below him blinding him as he began to fall through the floor. He tried to grab the metal bars to stay with his brother but the last thing he saw was and empty cell. Ace was gone._

_He landed on the deck at the back end of Sunny with a thud. Without a second thought, he slowly stood up and lazily brushed himself off. A sudden rush of emptiness flooded his mind that robbed him of his happy normal attitude and left him with the same indifference that had developed during his torturous imprisonment. Luffy visibly drooped as he walked over to the rail and leaned over the edge staring down into the sparkling water. The event that he just witnessed with Ace now almost seemed like it didn't even happen and all that mattered now was his…well, nothing. He looked at his hands and was surprised to see bandages that covered his arms and stepped back to see them all over his body. Around his shoulders, the dressings that he had torn off his eyes were still loosely draped blowing in the wind._

"_What's going on…at one point I'm fine and now I'm messed up again. I guess the things with Cai did happen but," Luffy grabbed his head in frustration and confusion, "What the hell is going on!?"_

"_**Shut up! He might hear you!"**_

"_**You're the one that's yelling!"**_

_Luffy's head shot up at the sound of the voices coming from the other end of the ship. They were oddly loud and clear despite the distance but he really didn't care. Nevertheless, his old curiosity got the best of his newly aquired indifference as he walked over to the commotion at the bow of the ship. _

"_**Give me that! Your tying it wrong!" **__Luffy's left elbow began to throb as he listened to the voices, only hearing mumbles except for the loud outbursts. Luffy stopped at the balcony staring lazily down at the lawn deck where his crew was frantically moving about carrying bags out of their rooms and placing them by the side railing. _

"…_What is everyone doing?" asked Luffy. Everyone froze and stared up at their captain above them. He only heard another mumble but he had no idea who it came from. " Eh? What did you say?"_

"_**Will you be quiet already!" **__yelled Nami who was just finishing up tying up a group of bags._

_Another murmur._

_He felt a sudden vibration underneath the deck. Luffy looked across the balcony to see Franky pulling on the lever than controlled the soldier dock system next to the helm. _

"_**We should get out of here before things get out of hand" **__said Chopper looking down at the ground. It seemed like he refused to look up at Luffy while he walked to the the ladder at the center of the lawn before he jumped down to the docking center below._

"_Wait, where are you guys going?" _

_Zoro mumbled something under his breath as he looked up at Luffy. He chuckled lightly, shaking his head while he walked towards the ladder._

"_What's so funny? Why is everyone ignoring me?" questioned Luffy anxiously, " Someone answer me!"_

"_**Shut up you shit-head!" **__yelled Sanji, __**" I don't see why I ever put up with your crap!" **__Luffy jumped a little from the harsh comment. __**" You never do anything useful on this ship, just so damn annoying!"**_

"_**Some captain you turned out to be," **__said Nami, __**" I can't believe everyone decided to follow you!"**_

"_Wait, what are you guys talking about…I thought we were nakama." Luffy was surprised by his own words but he could only guess that there was apart of him that still wanted it to be true. He looked over at Usopp and Robin who were throwing bags off the edge where he could barely see Chopper drifting in the small boat they stored in the docking system. _

"_**I knew this crew would fall apart eventually." **__stated Sanji walking away._

_Usopp mumbled something._

"_**Damn it all to hell! What…" **__yelled Zoro. Robin suddenly popped next to him in a flash. Luffy rubbed his eyes in disbelief of her quick movement across the deck._

"_**Stop. Let us leave captain-san now." **_

_Luffy's was shocked at Robin's words as he became aware of what was actually happening. He jolted over to the side and down the slide to the lawn deck. They were going to leave him, his nakama, and he didn't even know why. When he looked over everyone was gone and the deck was completely empty. Franky, Robin, Zoro, Sanji, Usopp; they had all disappeared without a trace and Chopper was no longer in the water. Their bags were gone but only one person remained. Nami stood in front of him staring disappointedly at him._

"_Nami, where is everyone? Why are you guys leaving? I thought…"_

_Nami turned her back to him and started to make her way over to the railing. "__**I'm leaving now, Luffy." **__Luffy felt a strong wind go through his hair for a moment while she stood at the rail. _

"_No wait! Don't leave me!" cried Luffy. He jumped forward reaching out to her but as soon as his hand touched her back she dissipated into smoke. His eyes followed the white cloud that slowly rose up into the air as his tears ran freely down his face. His crew had left him so suddenly and now he was all alone. A little piece of him had still fought against the words that Cai forced down his throat but now all faith was diminished. She had told them that they would abandon him if he showed any weakness and now she was right. He should had known, he never had any nakama._

_Luffy fell onto all fours on the grass; his tears sparkling on the green blades below him. He shook his head beginning to punch the ground in anger. With every punch he envisioned the faces of each of his 'nakama'. With every punch the ground cracked until the scene around him shattered like a broken mirror. On top of an invisible platform he watched the pieces fall below him into the black abyss._

"_I told you that they didn't care for you." Luffy felt a hand on his shoulder as he looked back to see Cai smiling down at him. "Do you understand why they left you?" _

_He didn't answer but turned his gaze back down to the blackness below him. "They left because they saw that you weren't strong enough to be their leader, that you could no longer serve your purpose to them. Nothing but a crew of smoke and mirrors." She walked around him and knelt down in front of him. Cai lifted his chin using her thumb to wipe his tears. "But don't worry, I still want you." With a soft smile she placed her lips over his. Luffy pulled back a little but not completely out of the unexpected embrace. To his surprise, she kissed him with more warmth and compassion than the ones that she had given him in the past. For once, it felt good._

_He did not close his eyes at first but eventually his indifference gave in to her as his eyelids slowly fell. Inside, he felt a beautiful ecstasy like maybe, it was meant to be... but how could that be? With an obvious enemy? A faint scream rang through his ears as he quickly broke the kiss with Cai. When he opened his eyes all he saw was a city completely demolished in front of him while the people ran in terror away from him. Luffy looked around him in confusion as a citizen threw a rock at him barely missing his head before running off._

"_MONSTER!" _

"…_monster? Me?" He stepped forward and felt something slip slightly through his fingers. Luffy looked down to see himself covered in blood and carrying something in his right hand. He lifted up his arm to see what he was holding up to his face. "AGH!" Luffy quickly tossed the severed head of a man off to the side in a pile of rubble while he frantically tried to rub the blood on his fingers on his his shorts in disgust. He felt a warm glow on his face as his attention was drawn back to the city. He watched in horror as the buildings were engulfed in a large fire, the screams echoing through the crackle of the flames._

X

The Straw-hat crew were all packed in the infirmary watching over their feverish captain. They sat in silence with Luffy tossing around in his bed quietly moaning in his sleep while Chopper quickly wiped the sweat away from his forehead. The small reindeer dipped the rag in a basin full of cold water and placed it back on his head.

"What's wrong with him?" asked Usopp nervously watching his best friend let out another short groan.

"I think he's dreaming," inquired the small reindeer, " I wish he would stay still. He keeps tearing up his bandages."

"Oi, Reindeer gorilla! Look! The bandages on his elbows are coming undone." pointed out Franky.

"My name isn't reindeer gorilla!" cried Chopper.

"Well, you look like one." joked Franky laughing along with Usopp.

"Shut up! He might hear you!" yelled Nami clonking their heads together.

Zoro crossed his arms leaning back in his chair against the wall. " You're the on that's yelling!"

"I got it," said Sanji moving next to Chopper. He began to wind the bandages around Luffy's arm again but they refused to stay and unraveled every time. Nami watched in annoyance while Sanji failed to fix the dressings until she finally stood up and pushed Sanji out of the way.

"Give me that! You're tying it wrong!"

Nami began to roughly tie the bandage firmly around Luffy's left elbow. " Calm down, Nami. Don't you think you're being a little harsh?" whispered Usopp.

"Don't waste your breath Usopp, she never goes easy on Luffy." mumbled Zoro.

"Will you be quiet already!" yelled Nami finishing up the knot. Chopper pulled down the sides of his hat as he watched the tension rise in the room. He looked worriedly down over to Luffy who had became oddly still.

"You heard the lady, shut your mouth, moss-head" muttered Sanji. The cook smirked as he brought down his foot on the supposedly unsuspecting swordsman who was still leaning back in his chair. Zoro snapped open his eyes catching Sanji's foot right above his head mirroring his own amused smile. Zoro pushed Sanji's foot away from him knocking him backwards to collide with the wooden frame that held up the mattress. Luffy let out a small gasp when his bed shook that caused the whole room to go silent.

"We should get out of here before things get out of hand" said Chopper watching a fuming Sanji get off the floor.

"Yeah, before the shitty cook does something wrong again and ends up making things worse for Luffy." said Zoro under his breath while he stretched out of his chair. He chuckled lightly while he casually made his way to the door.

"Shut up you shit-head!" yelled Sanji, " I don't see why I ever put up with your crap!" Zoro stopped in his tracks quickly whipping his head around to glare at the blonde " You never do anything useful on this ship, just so damn annoying!"

"Some captain you turned out to be," said Nami, " I can't believe we decided to follow you!"

"I knew this crew would fall apart eventually," sighed Sanji pulling out a cigarette.

"Don't say that Sanji" whispered Usopp.

Zoro's hands were balled into fists while he listened to the two criticize his authority as Luffy's first-mate. He turned around and stomped towards the cook who simply glared back at him. " Damn it all to hell! What…!"

Robin stopped him in mid-sentence laying her hand on his shoulder before anything drastic happened. " Stop. Let us leave captain-san now."

Zoro shrugged her hand off his shoulder and stormed out of the room followed closely by Usopp and Franky. Robin motioned Sanji and Chopper out before she left herself, leaving Nami alone with Luffy.

Nami smiled at Robin's back and made her way over to the side of the bed looking down at Luffy's sleeping form. "I'm leaving now, Luffy." Nami lifted her hand to glide over his covered eyes before running her fingers through his hair. She backed away from the bed carefully and quietly made her way to the door and out of the room. She turned off the lights and glanced back into the dark room before closing the door. Inside, the window let in a ray of light that sparkled off the silent tears that ran down Luffy's face.

X

Ace backed against the wall of the dining room wall letting Zoro pass and storm out onto the deck. "What the hell? What's his problem?" He shrugged while he continued to the sick bay door.

Usopp rushed out of the room and ran into the older pirate. "Ow!" he cried falling to the ground.

"Oh, sorry Usopp" apologized Ace lending a hand down to the marksman.

Usopp took his hand rubbing his nose with his other. "Itai!.. It hurts so much!"

" Hey, do you know why Zoro is all pissed off suddenly?" asked Ace while he watched Chopper pass them. He heard the door open again and Franky appeared followed by Sanji. The cook looked over at them and scowled at Ace before climbing up the ladder with Franky as Robin closed the infirmary door behind her.

'Geez, is that guy ever going to get off my back?' sighed Ace to himself.

"Listen Ace, I don't think it's good to talk about it now. I'll just tell you later when everything's calmed down. I think that everyone's a little cranky and stuff if you know what I mean." said Usopp suddenly serious, "just so you know, Nami's still in there too."

Robin just smiled politely at him while she quickly led Usopp up the ladder and out the dining room. Ace scratched his head again and shrugged turning back to the infirmary door. As he reached to push the door open he was stopped by a pair of hands that had sprouted from the wall.

"Wait until she's done Portgas-san" warned Robin from up the ladder. Ace sweat dropped looking sheepishly down at the ground. He backed up and flopped on the couch against the wall behind him. He put his chin in his hand with his elbow propped on his knee and sighed lightly glancing up at the ladder to make sure the older woman wasn't watching him. The door creaked open again and Nami slipped out closing the door as quietly as possible behind her.

"Hey."

Nami jumped back into the door covering her mouth trying to stifle her scream. She looked in front of her to see Ace staring at her in confusion while he got up from his seat.

"Don't scare me like that!"

"Hmm?… oh, sorry about that." said Ace rubbing the back of his head, "Anyway, what's going on? Any reason why all of you guys are leaving Luffy alone?"

" Well, Luffy needs to get some rest, and those idiots seem to think it would be a great idea to start a fight inside of there so we all couldn't stay in there." explained Nami, " and I just want to give him some peace and quiet so I decided to leave him too."

X

Luffy screamed out sitting upright in his bed. 'What the hell?!' He couldn't see anything around him; all he could hear was the sound of his heavy breathing and some voices not to far away from him. The door slammed open and what sounded like two people ran in.

"Luffy! Are you okay?" asked Nami running over to his side.

Luffy didn't answer her again. He turned to her for a second but quickly turned away. A low rumbling from outside could be heard before both doors of the infirmary were kicked through and the other crew members piled back into the room.

"What the hell was that?"

'Sanji'

"Did somebody just scream?"

'Usopp'

"Shit! Luffy's awake!"

'Zoro'

"Straw-hat! You're okay!"-sniff-

'Franky'

Luffy listened to each voice and identified each of his crew around him while they all rambled on to themselves. He flinched slightly when he heard each individual annoyed at the sudden yelling that had filled the room. ' Their so happy, all of them.'

Ace watched his little brother turn his head away from his crew down at the opposite side of his bed while everyone else went about excitedly talking about Luffy's recovery without even noticing his odd behavior. "Luffy" he whispered.

Luffy perked his head up at the sound of Ace's voice. "Ace?"

"Yeah, I'm right here otouto-chan." Nami sighed as she saw Luffy respond to his brother and not to any of his crew's voices, not even hers. In fact, it seemed that he was not only ignoring them but there was some disturbing vibe that seemed to emenate off of him since the first time he woke up.

"Where?" asked Luffy reaching out an arm out to his side. Ace stepped forward and grabbed his arm gently while Luffy gripped at his wrist and relaxed his arm. The crew had become quiet and watched the two siblings in awe.

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere for awhile." assured Ace.

"Luffy, we're all here too!" chimed Chopper. Luffy only nodded, the solemn attitude going unnoticed by the young reindeer. "This is great! Now that you're awake we can unwrap your eyes since its been over a week. I bet you can't wait to get those bandages off so you can see again. Let me take them off for you now." Chopper reached up to Luffy's head but as soon as he touched him Luffy's free hand shot up to stop him.

" Get away."

Chopper stumbled back slightly while everyone froze. " Luffy?" Ace's hand tightened around Luffy's arm.

Luffy felt the warning that Ace gave him knowing what he was trying to say. " ... I just want to take them off myself." Chopper only nodded despite Luffy not being able to see. Ace let go of his arm as all of them watched him reach for the knot on the side of his head. It seemed like everyone was leaning further into the room in anticipation while Luffy gradually unwound the dressing until they all fell down into his lap. He kept his eyes closed and rubbed the thin layer of dried blood off his face.

" Are your eyes okay?" whispered Nami.

Taking his hand off his eyes, Luffy smirked as he turned to them with his head tilted candidly to the side. " Never better."

The room stood still as all were held captive by the bright azure blue of Luffy's eyes.

-X-

_Relief and happiness filled her when she finally heard the voice that would be able to save her from this monster. Enel looked over the edge of his flying ark gripping his staff a little tighter. Nami frantically ran over to the edge and crawled on top of it to look down at her savior. _

_Tears welled into her eyes as she practically squealed with excitement. " Luffy!"_

_Luffy was looking up at them completely infuriated with his hands balled into fists by his side. "What the hell have you done to my nakama?" he growled. _

_Enel raised a brow at his comment with little interest. " Eh? What trash are you talking about?" _

_"You stay right there!" shouted Luffy from below, "__I'm coming up to kick your ass!"_

_Nami stared down at Luffy as he provoked the god further over the edge. She wanted to shut his mouth before Enel's wrath would get them both killed but something about the way he looked gave her a sliver of hope. Luffy's clothes were almost all torn to shreds and scraps dotted all around his body but the way he glared up at them was all she needed. His dark eyes were locked in a cold and unamused gaze that threatened all enemies caught in them but to his nakama, they were the warm chocolate brown eyes that would stop at nothing to keep them safe._

-X-

Taking in their reactions, Luffy closed his eyes again and began to slide off of the bed. He sure as hell wasn't going to stay stuck in this cramped room to be a show to gawk out. Zoro was the first one to shake off the shock grabbing onto Luffy's wrist as Luffy looked indifferently down at the swordsman's hand and continued to swing his legs off of the bed. " Wait, maybe you want to put something on before you come out from under the sheets." said Zoro motioning to Usopp. Luffy merely shrugged and leaned back on his arms watching Usopp run out of the room. Everyone stared at their captain while he seemed to find the ceiling more interesting.

" Luffy-san, if I may ask, what happened to your eyes?" asked Robin. Everyone else sighed in relief that someone finally asked the question that was on their minds. Luffy shifted his gaze to them causing everyone to move back involuntarily.

" Mmm? Whatcha talking about?" he asked innocently.

" Luffy, they're blue." stated Ace a matter of factly.

Luffy looked up and screwed up his face as if he was in deep thought. " Oh! that. Cai decided to experiment on me." he said nonchalantly causing everyone's jaws to drop to the ground. Before anyone could say anything, Usopp ran back into the room with Luffy's dark shorts and a pair of boxers and placed them on the bed.

" Uh sorry, your usual pants are kind of still torn up. " said Usopp rubbing the back of his neck. Luffy took the clothes under the sheets and slipped them on. No shirt was needed since it would be best not to cover his bandages around his arms and chest. Once again swinging his legs to hang over the edge of his bed, he was stopped by Chopper who was looking worriedly at him.

"Luffy you're not fully healed yet. You should just rest!" the reindeer pleaded, " without your devil fruit powers you seem to be recovering a little slower than you used to." The boy slowly brought his hand up to the collar that was, no doubt, still clinging onto his neck.

"I'm fine." He jumped off the bed stumbling a little into Franky who caught him. Nobody could seem to find the nerve to actually stop their captain from moving despite his current weak state. Luffy pushed Franky away and started towards the door while everyone scrambled out of the way but before he could get out Ace put a hand against the door with a look of concern towards him. Luffy looked up at him then down to the side giving Ace all he needed to know as he slowly opened the door and let Luffy walk through.

With one last glance to the rest of the straw-hats he followed their captain out. " Don't follow."

Not one word was said as the door clicked shut behind them. The crew was astonished at what had just happened that was entirely not what they were expecting. Instead of jumping off the walls and asking for meat, Luffy had simply woken up and barely said anything. The only thing that was the same was his stubborn-ness to get up and move instead of staying in bed and resting.

"What the hell was that!" yelled Sanji.

" Such strange behavior for our captain." said Robin, " this is not good."

" Cai experimented on him. Isn't that enough to explain it?" said Zoro.

" Or maybe that's not Luffy and it's an evil clone!" claimed Usopp.

Chopper's eyes formed into stars amazed by Usopp's assumption. "Sugoi! How can you tell?"

" Well, isn't it obvious by the way Luffy isn't acting himself?" Usopp said rubbing his chin, "Cai must have taken his DNA and experimented on Luffy. After several attempts and failures she was finally able to create...EVIL LUFFY!!" Chopper looked completely convinced by the sketches of the scenes that the marksman described hastily drawn on his sketchpad in detail.

"Usopp! There is no evil clone!" retorted Sanji.

" We shouldn't jump to conclusions. Maybe he is still shaken up from his capture. Remember, we have no idea what happened to him and we might never know so we should just give it time."

" Maybe that shitty brother of his knows what's going on," suggested Sanji, " he seems to be the only one that ever knows what's going on with Luffy lately."

" We should get him to tell us what's going on. I don't like Luffy like this." said Zoro while everyone nodded in agreement.

" What happened to Luffy!" Chopper, Franky and Usopp all collapsed together crying dramatically on the floor. Nami stood staring at the door that the brothers had left through still in shock. 'It wasn't right. How could this be happening?' She frantically tried to think of a good reason that Luffy could be so cold to them, his nakama. 'I've..we've been searching for him so long and that's how he repays us?! That thick-headed moron!' she screamed in her mind digging her nails into her palms.

_" I'll just say that we could lose Luffy forever."_

Ace's words ran across her mind as she brought her hand up to her mouth, 'maybe...'

X

The crew all turned to the door as Ace walked into the kitchen where they were all sitting around the table. With his hands in his pockets, he walked over to the couch and layed down on it tipping his hat down over his eyes. Watching his every move waiting to hear some news the group sweatdropped when they heard the sound of snoring after a short time.

" Oi! Wake up!" yelled Zoro bonking the man on the head with the hilt of his sword.

Ace slowly sat up rubbing the bump on his head looking sleepily around the table. " Eh, what wrong?" The straw-hats loomed darkly over Ace shrinking him down against the couch. " Oh, uh yeah, Luffy! ...What about him?"

" What do you mean ' what about him'?! Isn't it obvious that he was not being normal...or wait, he was acting like a normal person..which isn't normal for him so that must mean he WAS being normal which is not right.... ah, soo desu ka!" Usopp rambled on, his voice slowly drifting into the background.

" What he means is what's up with the way that Luffy acted when he woke up again?" cut in Nami. Ace lowered himself back down on the couch crossing his fingers behind his head.

" ... I can't tell you." he whispered staring at the ceiling.

" What do you mean you can't tell us!" yelled Nami.

Sanji reached down and pulled Ace up to face him. " Listen, we have a right to know what's going on with Luffy."

" I can't tell you because not even sure what happened." Sanji dropped him back onto the couch staring wide-eyed at him along with the rest of them.

" But we thought you would know something since he only seems to be responding to you." reasoned Chopper.

" I don't know what to tell you but I recommend you leave him alone until he comes to you. My brother won't even talk to me that much and I'm worried myself but I can't force him to tell me anything yet," said Ace, " He's down in the aquarium bar and he asked me to leave him alone so I'm guessing he wants to not be bothered."

" So we just pretend that nothing's wrong?" asked Sanji. He was only answered by the sound of snoring again signaling that Ace had fallen back asleep in front of them. " The hell you're going to ignore me!" Sanji brought his foot down on the sleeping man but was stopped by Zoro.

" Leave him alone. Let's focus on Luffy now. Why don't you make him something to eat and just send it down to him through the elevator?" ordered Zoro sternly.

Sanji put his foot down and turned his back on him. " Why should I follow your orders?"

"C'mon, Sanji. Why can't you just get some meat or something? Luffy's probably starving!" argued Usopp.

" So your siding with the shitty swordsman? I don't have to...."

"It's a good idea, cook-san. Make a meal so we can send it down without disturbing him." interrupted Robin.

Sanji's eyes immedietly changed into hearts as he danced around the table. " You are so smart Robin-chwan!! but I'm doing it for you and not the moss-head." he chimed, " Oi! Franky help me get some fish. Hopefully we can get one with the net and not have to dive in with Luffy in there." Franky nodded while he followed the cook out onto the deck.

" That's one late dinner. There was just too much that happened today and I guess we have nothing better to do until morning. I think I'm going to turn in." said Usopp stretching his arms and started walking out the door.

" Yes, it has been. We should all get some rest while Luffy-san eats and hopefully collects himself tonight." proposed Robin, " Are you coming, Navigator-chan?"

Nami looked over at Robin hesitantly rubbing her hands together then down at Chopper. " Ano, Chopper, do you think I can take watch tonight?" The reindeer looked up at Nami confused but smiled brightly and nodded. He didn't really care to know why if he could skip out on watch duty as he ran after Usopp to the boy's dorm. Nami sighed in relief that no one had questioned her and waved goodnight to Robin as she climbed up the ladder to the deck to sit with her mikan trees closing the hatch behind her.

" Are you coming, kenshi-san?" asked Robin from the door.

Zoro sat down in the chair nearest him around he table. " Yeah, I'll just be a minute." Robin smiled at him then down at Ace before she closed the door. Zoro crossed his arms with his eyes closed listening to the sound of Ace's heavy breathing. " That was a lie wasn't it?" Ace continued to snore. " He told you something that you're not telling us... I just hope you know what you're doing." Zoro stood up and walked out the room. Ace opened his eyes and looked towards the door shamefully before closing them again.

X

Luffy stared at the fish dinner that the dumbwaiter brought down from the kitchen and continued to poke at it immaturely to watch it jiggle. He saw the net go in awhile ago and catch a large fish inside the aquarium but he didn't expect it to be for him. Still, he had barely touched it, only taking a few bites to quell his growling stomach. If any of the others had seen how little that he had eaten they would have probably thought something was horribly wrong with him and force him back to bed. He had forgotten how tasty Sanji's food was after so long without a proper meal with Cai, if any, yet Sanji never made anything special for him. Robin or Nami must have put him up to it. As if he would do anything as spontaneous as a gourmet dinner just for him. The fork fell from his awkward hand as he sighed in agitation of being temporarily left-handed since his healing fingers on his right tied tightly together. Luffy stood up slowly, taking careful consideration for his sore body. It was hard enough that he was without his usual strength but all the wounds, especially the ones around his joints, were causing him unbearable pain. Luffy groaned, surveying the bandages around him where some could be seen with tiny red blotches bleeding through. Although it hurt a lot, he didn't really mind that walking around was abusing his knees just because he refused to stay still after being stuck chained to a wall for...how long? It must have been hours since Ace had left him down here so it was probably night time up on deck meaning that everyone was asleep. He calmly made his way to the hallway and out the door.

Luffy relaxed over the rail staring down at the sea below. It was strange, he was drawn to the back of the ship rather than sitting on Sunny's head but his mind refused to go near a place that would trigger memories of false happiness. Instead, he watched the waves that Sunny created drift away from the ship in all directions, farther away into the night's black sea. It was so peaceful with the ocean's night air blowing though his ebony locks but nothing could quell the anger and fire that burned inside of him.

He sighed and leaned on his forearms while he closed his eyes. He didn't want to be near any of his crew right now but night-time would have to do since everyone was asleep. Atleast no one was around to distract him so he could think. ' Heh, this is something that would surprise all of them. They all believe I would never actually do anything like think alone.' he mused, ' I'm just an idiot with muscles to them. How could I have ever trusted them?' Luffy stared into darkness brooding with a perspective that contrasted his old high spirits. Yet, he always had an intellectually deep mind but he used to favor innocence with fun rather than serious thought and order. Now, it was different.

He had tried to keep himself from the thoughts before but now he was letting what he blocked off for so long flow free. Were they using him this whole time? Were they planning on leaving him if they couldn't find him? Were they going to leave him eventually and take off to leave him all alone in the end? Luffy was absorbed with doubt of the nature of his naka-... his crew: their jealously, betrayal, greed, everything he stayed away from and fought against but would be his downfall in the end by the doing of others around him... it hurt.

X

Nami heard a door below her open and peered over the railing to see Luffy walk out of the first level door. A flurry of butterflies raged in her stomach as she watched him make his way towards the back of Sunny. This was exactly why she had asked for the watch tonight: for a chance to get Luffy alone if he happened to come out of the aquarium room that night and be able to talk to him. She swiftly slid down the ladder into the kitchen and quietly down onto the first floor of the deck towards the stern.

' Wait, what am I doing?' she asked herself as she inched across the wall, ' I don't even know what I'm going to do when I get to him! But I have to know why he's acting so weird. Maybe he will actually open up to me...' She peeked around the corner to see her captain leaning over the water with his eyes closed. ' Wow, Luffy thinking. I thought I would never see the day.' She stifled a laugh while she watched Luffy sigh heavily, leaning further over the rail. The boy in front of her seemed to be lost in deep thought and wasn't nearly aware that she was standing only a couple of feet behind him. Suddenly, Luffy lifted his fist in the air and slammed it down on the rail with a growl before it went limp by his side and he leaned his forehead on his arm that was still resting on the banister. Nami's heart was crushed at the sight of Luffy looking so defeated and, for some reason, instinctively moved up to put her arms around him hugging him from behind.

Luffy immediately jumped up knocking her away and backed up against the rail. " Ah!" yelped the boy latching onto his elbow. In his rapid movement he had accidentally rubbed his elbow harshly against the wood irritating the tender skin.

" Luffy! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you! Let me help you with that." pleaded Nami reaching for his injury. Luffy evaded her shaking his head.

" No, I'm fine. Why are you still up?" asked Luffy quickly changing the subject.

" Uh, well I was on watch duty tonight." she mumbled. ' Why the hell am I acting so unsure? This is Luffy I'm talking to!'

" Okay." Luffy let go of his arm and looked back out to the water moving his hand to swipe the hair that the wind had blown into his eyes. Nami had followed his hand move but as it fell back down to his side her gaze was glued on the boy's face. She stood in a trance as she became utterly mesmerized by his appearance. This was the first time that she had noticed how long his hair had grown over the months with his bangs falling over the bridge of his nose and the rest midway down his neck. Luffy's azure eyes practically almost glowed in the night mimicking the color of the day time sky while his hair blew gently in the wind. What confused her the most was the actual aura that seemed to be around the boy as she looked into those amazing eyes. There was some sort of unfamiliar sensation that brought chills down her spine but she had to admit, his new features suited him well making him look more mature and well, attractive. Luffy looked over at the orange-haired girl who was staring oddly at him. " Did you want something?"

Nami shook her head trying to regain her usual attitude. She was already getting irritated with how her conversation with him was no where near as engaging as she wanted which would help toughen up her mindset. Taking a breath, she internally prepped herself and turned her gaze back over to him. He might be acting a little different but he's still the same clueless Luffy that she could beat down for being such a dumbass all the time. " As a matter of fact, I do! What's wrong with you? You're acting strange, even for you!" It took a lot of courage, but she was able to fight off her feelings for her captain and act as she would have any other day with him. " Why can't you tell us what's going on instead of going off and locking yourself in that room?"

"You don't have to know. You guys have done enough."

" What do you mean by that? Luffy, you're not making any sense." she lectured, " Just tell me...or I'll tell Sanji not to give you any meat!"

Luffy furrowed his brow at Nami's words and looked away. " You wouldn't understand."

Her temper grew with Luffy's detached behavior towards her, annoyed with how difficult he was being with her after the past months of separation." I wouldn't understand?! Look who I'm talking to! Luffy, you idiot! We almost got captured by marines and had jump to different islands all for you and you can't tell us anything even after all we've been through?!" yelled Nami. Surprisingly, that statement wasn't an act but actually just came out from sheer emotion. The stress she had went through while they had desperately searched for him had built up and, to her worse fear, spilt out on the person who didn't deserve it. "Do you know how much trouble we had to go through just to find you?"

The young girl breathed heavily staring cold daggers at the raven haired boy but melted back when Luffy glared back at her. She immediately regretted her outburst when she saw the anger in his face and how hard he was gripping the wood. " It was trouble for you guys to come and save me?! You have no idea what I was going through while you all were trying to find me!" shouted Luffy. Holding her ground, Nami winced hardly able to keep eye contact with him but for a split second she could have sworn she saw light blue ring around his pupils as he spoke. "You should have left me instead, so you all could go on and not have to deal with having to rescue nakama!" He said 'nakama' is such a bitingly sarcastic tone, yet as he said the last word the wood underneath Luffy's palm splintered into tiny pieces while a large wave flew up from behind him and crashed back down with a loud splash. Luffy didn't even seem to notice anything happen and turned away from her to storm back into the aquarium. The moment the door closed behind him Nami let go of the breath she was holding as tears began to form in her eyes.

"What have I done? Baka! How could I be so selfish?" Nami fell to floor and looked up at the broken part of the railing. The sound of doors opening and the voices of her fellow nakama could be heard from across the ship as Sunny seemed to come alive in the middle of the night.

"Oi! Was that a cannon shot?!" cried Usopp.

"It sounded like someone was yelling." said Franky.

Nami paid no attention to the others' calls and crawled over to the rail to touch the splintered wood. " It was completely shattered..." she whispered whipping her head around to the aquarium door then back at the wood, " but how could he do that if he still has the sea stone around his neck?...and the wave." The sound of footsteps could be heard coming gradually towards her as she turned her head around to have a shadow cast over her.

" I told you to leave him alone."

**So this chapter in bringing out a lot of psychology with all the dreamscape effects and how what we expect can alter the way we think and act out. Psh, whatever. You can also just read it and not think to hard about it too. Haha, that's what I would do. While I was writing this I had a few sketches going for it that I just put on paper as reference to scenes. I guess it would basically be good so it's a physical picture of what the characters look like but I only drew Cai and Luffy for now and they're just random head-shots so check it out if you want. I was bored. So you will see that I hate drawing hands because I fail and overall I'm not very good. They're sketches so they're not detailed much and they're messy. Go to my Profile at the bottom of the info part thing.  
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**I could have stopped writing at any of the 'X' checkpoints but that would have just be mean on my part. When I finished writing this I had to edit it more than 10 times just because I was never satisfied with it and didn't want to post it, but even now I still don't like it all. Yeah, Nami is being stupid for actually going against Ace's warning to stay away but you can't blame a girl for wanting to have her happy ending. Unfortunately, I'm not one for a cliche love story where the moment the guy wakes up they confess their love for each other and get it on. Haha! So I tried by best not to torment Luffy too much with angst but like I said, he's been through a lot being on the "need to be saved" side and it's going to mess with his mind. Plus, Luffy is generally portrayed as a naive kid, ' personally i don't think he is but that's just me' , so his mind is easily manipulated by others sometimes, aka: Cai, if they mention the right things. Now! There are even more unanswered questions especially with Ace's knowledge but that's my style like in my other story, questions answered as the story progresses. Please do not bomb me for the OOC Luffy in this chapter because, once again, it's part of the story!! Don't hurt me with your reviews please. X REVIEW!!X**


	13. Drifting from the Path

**I am really sorry about how it took me over a year to update on this story. I just kept drawing blanks whenever I sat down to try to type something up. **

**Anyway I would like to explain a few things: **

** 1. Once again, be wary of the characters odd behavior. Things are getting tense right now so the crew is ready to blow.  
2. A couple of new things introduced that will make things that were odd in the beginning come full circle.  
3. Some things are to be found out later in the story: they aren't ready to be revealed.**

**Keep these in mind while you're reading. Sorry for the vague-ness. Watch out bad things coming Nami's way.**

**Warning!****: OoC, Blood, ****Sexual content**

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**READ THE ABOVE FIRST**

Ace pushed open the door and quietly slipped into the room. Closing it behind him he scanned the room to find his brother sitting on the couch again by the aquarium walls. With his head leaning on the glass, Luffy stared listlessly at the fish swimming gracefully through the water passing by his face. At the sound of the creaking hinges, Luffy turned his head as the two brothers locked eyes.

For a moment, the two stared at each other in complete silence; the eyes full of concern and those emptied of life connected by a brotherly bond. Luffy's eyes were still hard for Ace to get used to: so captivating and unreal reflecting as little emotion as there was to offer behind those azure eyes, beautiful as the sky, yet so cold and unfamiliar as the depths of the ocean. It wasn't a surprise, even to himself, that Ace had to avert his gaze to the floor to escape the sight.

Ace sighed and walked over to the couch sitting himself down next to the younger boy. He closed his eyes trying to mentally prepare himself for the awkward silence ahead of him but the moment he sat down he felt a weight fall onto his shoulder. A smile appeared on his face dissipating the unease in the room. Ace looked over to his side where his brother had made himself comfortable on his arm. He could tell that Luffy was still exhausted but leave it up to his little brother to move around and exert himself like the stubborn kid he had always been.

"Eh? Did that wear you out, Luffy?" teased Ace. He laughed lightly peering down to see Luffy's reaction. His smile faded as he saw Luffy's eyebrows furrow. The older brother shifted his eyes to the ceiling. " What happened out there… with Nami?"

" Nothing." Ace closed his eyes at the response. He didn't really expect Luffy to tell him anyway.

"Alright Luffy, just rest for now. I'll stay with you for the rest of the night." He lifted his arm around Luffy letting him find a more comfortable position on his chest.

" I never liked the way she treated me like an idiot. That navigator in my crew was the furthest away out of all of them that I used to call my nakama," whispered Luffy.

Ace's eyes widened at the words he heard. "Navigator? Don't you mean Nami?" he asked looking down at the other boy "And I've never heard that serious tone…what's wrong with you?" Luffy's eyes were already closed signaling the end of the conversation. Ace's looked over at the table and saw the unfinished fish dinner.

' Guess he wasn't hungry….'

X

"This is getting ridiculous now!" shouted Sanji slamming his fist onto the table, " just one problem after another when we haven't solved any of them!"

"Oi, oi, we got Luffy back didn't we?" interrupted Franky.

"Yeah, that's one problem solved don't you think?" said Chopper peering out cautiously from under the table at the fuming cook. Even so, it wasn't only Sanji that was being pushed to the edge by this mess.

It was already morning on the Thousand Sunny and after the rough night they had all gathered for another crew meeting. All of them were there except for Ace and their captain. Not a single sound had escaped the aquarium room where the two brothers had taken refuge. They were at a stand-still at this point, no other move but to sit and wait.

"Isn't there anything else that Ace said to you before he walked into the aquarium room?" asked Usopp. Nami only shook her head no for the third time.

"I already told you all he said was that nobody should come into this room until either he or Luffy comes out," she muttered obviously annoyed by the same question. She glared at Usopp balling her hands into fists, "So stop asking me that damn thing over and over!"

"Sorry, Nami. I wasn't trying to make you mad," apologized Usopp holding up his hands in defense, "It's just that, we need something to give us a clue or something, right?"

"You think I don't know that?"

Usopp twiddled his thumbs darting his eyes from Nami to the table. "Well…you did talk to him last so, umm…"

"So! That doesn't mean anything!" The sharpshooter trembled in his seat before falling backwards out of his chair and onto the floor. He had enough experience with her short temper. Nami's glare was enough to scare him back against the wall to create as much distance between them in case she blew up on him. Zoro slowly stood up and walked over to put himself between Usopp and Nami.

"Oi, oi. Now's not the time to start fighting," said Zoro.

Nami lounged back into her chair crossing her arms. "Oh, so now you're going to try to play the good guy here?"

"I'm not trying to play anyone. I'm just trying to keep everyone together," he responded calmly. At the moment, Zoro knew she was playing mind games with her, trying to get him angry.

"Together?" asked Nami, a smirk forming on her face, " No one is following you when you proved yourself incapable as captain. How do you expect to keep us together?"

"Nami…" said Chopper, quietly.

Nami raised her hands and shrugged lightly. " You should just stand aside and let me handle it."

"You shut your mouth," he growled staring coldly back at the orange-haired girl. The rest of the group gasped as they glanced back and forth between the two opposing forces in the room. Even Nami's eyes were wide open in shock to hear Zoro's menacing tone directed at her. " Don't act all high and mighty over any of us when it was you who pissed off Luffy last night in the first place! It was you who even started this whole thing!"

Nami quickly pushed herself up to stand and square off against the swordsman. As if she was going to let him put the blame all on her… he was also responsible for slowing them down. What the hell was he trying to do? "This isn't my fault! I was trying to help last night…I didn't mean to make him angry…I...I…."

"Whoa! Settle down you two!" yelled Franky waving his arms between them.

Zoro took a moment to calm down keeping himself into playing into her trap. "Even in that last battle with Luffy before that…Cai, even showed up," said the swordsman cooly, " I didn't say anything but I saw what you did." At those words, Nami's completely froze. Nobody ever said he couldn't turn the tables on her.

She mentally shook her head in disbelief that anyone knew other than her. How could he possibly know what happened? No…he couldn't have known. " I have no idea what you're talking about!" He wasn't talking only about last night. No, she knew exactly what he was trying to do.

"That's enough of hiding it," continued Zoro, " you know what I'm talking about. You've been trying to be the hero and get to Luffy the most out of all of us."

"You're wrong! We are all trying to work together to help Luffy equally!" shouted Nami.

"You've been trying so hard to fight me for command over the crew so you can get everyone on your side. I don't follow anyone's order other than the captain, and that's Luffy," said Zoro crossing his arms, "I'm not helping you when you keep hurting our captain."

"What are you two talking about?" asked Robin. She looked over at Franky who only shrugged.

" Shut-up, Zoro!" cried Nami, " Don't listen to him, everyone! Please! It isn't my fault!" She felt like an idiot right now compared to him. She was raising her voice like a damn child and he was keeping him cool un-phased by anything. Damn his meditation training.

"If it isn't your fault then why are you trying to hard to fix it?" Nami looked up at Zoro, her eyes silently pleading him to stop talking. " Maybe it's because you feel guilty and want to make up for what you put him though."

The rest of the crew was completely confused at the conversation before them. It wasn't like Zoro to be so trivial and harsh in whatever he said to his nakama and Nami had never looked so scared and desperate to make Zoro stop. "No…no…no" she stuttered "you're wrong it's not because of…" Zoro raise a brow as if urging her to explain.

Sanji was staring at Nami completely in aw at how vulnerable she looked at the moment. He was so captivated that he hadn't even attacked the swordsman for being so cruel to his still precious Nami-swan. He was suddenly knocked out of his daze when a single tear slid down the navigator's cheek. Sanji quickly lunged towards Zoro and grabbed ahold of his shirt. "You better stop this, dammit! I'm not going to sit around and watch you make her cry, you shit-head."

Zoro completely ignored the cook's threats and waited for Nami's response. " It's because of what then? What other excuse can you possibly ha…"

"It's not an excuse!" Nami shouted cutting of Zoro. "It's…it's because I love him!"

Chopper and Usopp gasped, Franky fell out of his chair, Robin let out a small sigh. Sanji loosened his grip on the other man's shirt as he turned to Nami. He looked so frustrated with the words he heard but so unwillingly defeated. " You're in love…with Luffy?" he whispered. The girl did not answer but turned on her heel and ran out of the room leaving them all in shock with her confession.

Sanji pulled out a cigarette and walked out of the room slamming the door behind him. Robin looked over at the swordsman as he pulled up a chair again to the table. "Zoro-san, don't you think that was a bit rough?"

"No, I don't." he quickly stated.

Usopp grimaced a little at his still-harsh tone as he got off the ground. " But Zoro, you just forced Nami to confess her, uh…um, feelings. I feel sorry for her." Mumbled Usopp.

"I've never seen her look so sad before. That was cruel, not cool at all," joined in Franky.

"Poor Nami," cried Chopper.

" Whatever her feelings, I don't care but she has more than one reason she wants to be by his side."

"I'm going to see if she's okay," said Chopper running out the door. Usopp followed silently along with Franky leaving only two in the room.

Robin got up to pour herself a cup of coffee. "That wasn't a very nice way to handle things," said Robin watching the liquid flow from the pot, "what exactly were you trying to accomplish?"

"This crap is getting on my nerves and I don't need that damn witch pushing me around," he responded. Robin sat down across from him looking over at him with genuine interest. "She's playing the victim but with what she did during the battle with that last enemy before Cai, I don't feel sorry for her at all."

The older woman looked down into her cup staring at her reflection on the surface. "Zoro-san, can't you see that this fight is tearing apart our crew even more?" She lightly tapped the side of the mug watching the tiny ripples shake through the coffee. " I fear that Portgas-san was right; that we are falling apart without the lively presence of our captain." Zoro stayed silent. "You never seemed to get so passionate during any of our crew meetings in the past. What makes this time around so different for you?"

He still kept his mouth shut refusing to look at Robin. She sighed and took a sip of her drink. Setting the cup down again she rested her chin in her palm. "Then tell me, what happened on that past island?"

-X-

"Are we going to move anytime soon?" moaned Doll sliding down the wall to the ground, "I'm so bored!"

She watched Cai walk from one side to another in the tiny lab. Opening cabinets, closing them, pulling out random things. Doll had to admit, she was still impressed that the blind girl could work with such ease. Nevertheless, Cai had been making something for the past hour and didn't even tell her what it was. It was so annoying how she never told anybody what her complete plans were. "C'mon Cai, at least tell me what you're doing if you won't give me something to do!"

"No," Cai shot back, " what I'm making is just for personal use and does not concern you in the least bit way." She turned her head to where she heard the other girl sit on the floor. " Why don't you go play with your boyfriend and let me finish my work in peace!"

Doll got up quickly hastily pushing her glasses up back into place. " Oh, okay then didn't know I was bothering you." She could tell that there was something bothering Cai and didn't want to stick around to find out what. Besides she wouldn't pass up a chance to mess around with Gaije without any disturbances from this girl. Everybody wins! Doll giggled in her mind while she slipped out of the room.

Cai waited and listened for the door to close and Doll's footsteps to fade away. She turned back towards the counter but she didn't continue her work. The room was silent. She moved her hand across the table and felt a glass against her skin. Before she could stop herself the glass fell off the edge and down to the floor, shattering into many pieces. Cai did not move at first, completely taken aback by the fact she could be so careless. She bent down and reached out to where she heard the glass shatter. Unfortunately, her fingers touched down on a sharp edge of one of the shards cutting into her porcelain skin. Her hand quickly flew back to her chest at the sharp pain as the smell of blood reached her nose.

The smell of blood...a silent room: how nostalgic. Cai felt a sudden loneliness rush into her the moment she thought about that boy, yet it wasn't out of missing his cries of pain but his presence in general. She had been feeling this way only recently…a couple days after his crew had come to rescue him a little under two weeks ago. She hated his kind so much after all that she had been through and she knew he was no different. He had no right to try to confuse her and change her plans.

She pushed everything on the counter to the ground. All the work she had done for the past hour ruined for some random concoction. It was only something to get her mind off of things. Cai growled and rested her head in her crossed arms on the counter. She didn' care. She had no other purpose in life other than to seek her revenge, no other reason to live.

X

_Luffy lay on the cold floor completely helpless to Cai's whims. His hands were chained together and as were his feet. Large lacerations trailed across his body from the merciless whip that his capturer held in her hand. Cai threw the whip to the corner of the room and walked over to where she left a brown sack by the door when she had walked in. When she picked it up the sound of metal clanking together could be heard while she walked back over to Luffy's side. _

_Cai put her hand on the boy's cheek feeling his cold skin against hers. It was so delightful to feel this damn monster so close to death. He was probably wishing the pain could end and that he could die already. "I'm tired of having to tie your limbs together every time I want to unchain you from your cell," she said devilishly putting her hand into the sack, "this should do the trick perfectly!" Cai pulled out a large bolt that had been sharpened to a point at the end. _

_The abused boy could only look on tiredly as Cai placed the sharp end slightly above his elbow. When the girl transformed her had into a sledge-hammer Luffy shifted his gaze to the wall in front of him. "Don't be shy. Let me hear that wonderful voice of yours!" chimed Cai bringing down the hammer onto the head of the bolt. Blood splattered everywhere as Luffy cried out. She pulled another bolt out and hammered it down into his skin again feeling the blood sprinkle onto her face. Cai licked the drops that had fallen onto her lips enjoying the taste and melody of Luffy's screams. _

_She pushed Luffy's face to look up at her and smiled down at him. "Tell me how you feel now." She demanded._

_Luffy breathed for a moment trying to the cope with the excruciating pain in his left arm. " It doesn't matter how I feel. There is no one that cares to save me now." Cai's smile grew bigger at his words proving her success to break this boy. She could feel it now; that she was going to win this game she had now. "I can understand how you have been feeling all these years."_

_Cai's smile dropped. She grabbed a fistful of his hair and pulled him towards herself. "What are you talking about? What do you know about how I feel?" _

_Luffy coughed up blood due to the rough treatment done to his body. " Your family, you mentioned how they died. You must have felt so alone after they were taken away."_

_Cai froze to the sound of compassion in this boy's voice. No one ever took the time to talk to her about what she had lost….but that's because no one every understood. They could never understand what it feels like to have their whole life taken away from them and neither could he! She threw him back down onto the ground. "Don't act like you actually care about what I have been through!" She pulled out another bolt and forced it down into Luffy's right elbow. Cai didn't give Luffy anytime to breath, quickly hammering down another one. "Don't talk about things you don't understand!"_

_Luffy opened one eye to look up at her again. She was smiling maniacally clutching another bolt in her hand. Cai placed the bolt's tip on the side of his leg by his knee. "Cai," whispered Luffy stopping her mid-stride from hammering the spike. She turned her face to his voice, waiting. "…You look so sad." Luffy closed his eye and rested his head on the ground. A stream of blood fell from his lips again and dripped onto the floor._

_Cai's shocked expression changed into rage as she punctured his leg. Luffy's scream had turned into whimpers. She drove the spikes into his legs listening to his sounds die down. By the time she had finished his other leg he had completely gone silent. Cai stood up over the boy's unconscious body. She brought up her hand to wipe her face but she stopped when she felt something she hadn't felt for years, tears. _

_The door opened and Gaije walked into the room. His boots hitting the ground were enough to clue Cai in to who it was. She bowed her head down to hide her face and turned to leave the room. "Clean him up, I don't want him dying on us."_

_Gaije nodded, too preoccupied staring at the bloody mess on the ground to notice Cai's quick departure. When she closed the door, Cai wiped the remnants of her tears away walking into the dark hallway alone._

_X_

"Ahh..nnn" Gaije ran his tongue down her neck and over her bare chest. Putting his lips around her nipple, he sucked gently feeling Doll's body arch underneath him. He let go letting his teeth graze lightly on the sensitive skin as he lifted his head. The two locked eyes staring deeply into each other. Doll reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down again. Their lips crashed together, tongues clashing, leaving their taste in the other's mouth.

Gaije continued to travel down her jaw to the middle her chest. He stopped suddenly, resting his forehead on her soft skin. His body slowly relaxed onto Doll's body as he let out a drawn out sigh. "Mmm, why did you stop?"

"What now?"

Doll let out her own sigh. "Is this really the time you chose to ask that?" Gaije didn't move giving her a silent yes. " Ugh, fine. Cai says that she believes that the group that the Luffy-kid went with will finish the job. Something about them pushing him over the edge by being selfish…something like that. I can't remember exactly what she said."

Gaije mulled over what she had just told him. It was a tactic of first hand experience that Cai was using: the crew, in their state, will prove Cai's words to the kid about how his nakama will fall away from him. "This is wrong."

Doll glanced down at him on top of her. "I thought we talked about this already. This isn't wrong we're just getting rid of the scum on the earth! I think we're actually the good-guys…for once." She laughed trying to push herself up. Gaije slid off of her to the side looking over at her. " Why are you siding with that no good brat anyway?"

" I don't know. He just doesn't seem like he deserves it." Said Gaije. Doll quickly pushed him flat on his back and sat on top of him straddling his hips.

"Since when did you care if anyone deserves pain," she asked running her fingernails down his chest, "What happened to the Gaije that enjoyed people's screams just as much as I do?" Her nails left bright red trail down his skin making him grunt quietly. "Like I said before, don't do anything stupid. Now let's not bring this up again."

Gaije closed his eyes and hesitantly nodded again. "Good!" exclaimed the girl on top of him. Gaije's eyes snapped open and roughly threw her off of him. He pinned her down by her wrists with one hand smiling sadistically at her surprised expression. He lowered his head licking the side of her cheek. With his free-hand he positioned himself at her entrance between her spread legs. A dark smile spread across Doll's face. Her body tensed, her back arched up, her voice cried out: music to his ears.

* * *

**Sorry about that last scene if you did not expect that this type of romance would appear. Mature content though and it wasn't really that descriptive. Anyway, I know it was shorter than I usually make them. **

**Yeah, Nami is having issues and things aren't going well for her right now. Next time I update there will be a mini twist concerning Luffy, Nami, and Zoro. Thanks for reading! Reviews are always great. They really do make me need to update when I get them. Once again, I'm sorry for the long hiatus.**


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